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Obama Health Care Law

March 27, 2012 by · Comments Off on Obama Health Care Law 

Obama Health Care Law, Chief Justice John Roberts compared the requirement in President Obama’s health care law that individuals purchase insurance to forcing people to buy cell phones so they could better access police, ambulances and fire trucks in emergencies.

Justice Samuel Alito compared the law to mandating people buy burial insurance because everyone’s going to die. And Justice Antonin Scalia likened it to making people enroll in gym memberships, in advancing the concerns of the conservative justices that Obama’s signature law could open the doors for Congress to require that Americans participate in all sorts of markets.

Tuesday morning’s Supreme Court hearings spanned two hours, twice the normal length. At the crux of today’s debate: whether Congress has the constitutional authority to require that nearly all Americans purchase health insurance, and whether it has the right to assess a financial penalty for those who refuse.

Twenty six states, an independent business group, and some individuals are suing the government on the basis that the mandate threatens individual liberty by forcing people into the insurance market.

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