Individual Mandate

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Nick Littrell page 1 Mr. Rex American Government 4/18/2012 There have been many constitutional arguments for and against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. In this essay I will outline the three major arguments that have been debated in front of the Supreme Court. The first argument is if the Anti-Injunction Act prevents the Supreme Court on ruling if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is constitutional at this time. The second argument is if the Individual Mandate is to be considered constitutional. The third argument is if the Individual Mandate is severable if found to be unconstitutional. I will explain these arguments further and give my opinion on which way the Supreme Court will rule and the reasons…show more content…
The group that is against the Affordable Care Act argues that the decision to not purchase health insurance is basically inactivity. This would mean that they have nothing to do with the interstate commerce of health insurance, so they feel like the government is making them purchase something that they do not want, which is not part of Congress’s power to regulate commerce. The Federal Government’s argument is that since everyone will need healthcare at some point in their life, and that we will never know when they will need this healthcare. This means that the people are not inactive and should be required to purchase health insurance to offset the costs of those already…show more content…
If this happens then the Supreme Court will have to rule if it is severable from the rest of the law. Which would mean, that it can either be taken out of the law or if the entire Act would be stricken down. The federal government argues that only two other provisions within the Act should be stricken if the Individual Mandate is found unconstitutional. The two provisions are the guaranteed-issue provision and the community-rating provision. Both of which, deal with pre-existing conditions and the rates that the insurance can charge them. The federal government argues that these two provisions are only useful if the Individual Mandate is allowed to remain part of the law. The group against the Act says that if the Individual Mandate is unconstitutional, then the entire law should be considered unconstitutional. Since neither side is arguing for only the Individual Mandate to be removed the Supreme Court appointed outside counsel to argue that
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