If the courts struck down the mandate...

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

(This is comment about Republican folly and about how courts work, not suggesting that the mandate is in fact unconstitutional.)

If a court struck down the mandate it would also have to render a decision about the separability of the mandate.

Say there's a law that says you have to respond to the census and that people of Chinese dissent have to slip a ten dollar bill in with the forms.

The crazy unconstitutional part would be considered separable from the broader "send in your census" bill. It would be struck down without changing the rest of the bill.

Other laws have unconstitutional provisions that are so central to the whole thing that the whole law gets struck down.

So let's say a court said the mandate is unconstitutional and is seperable... that the new regulations on insurers do not depend on the mandate to make sense or function or whatever the standard. (Just because parties negotiated or expected a balance of things in a bill does not means a particular is inseparable from a judicial standpoint. It may be. It may not be. Courts are supposed to look at the law as passed, not what someone whispered to someone somewhere.)

Well, you wouldn't want to be holding insurance stocks the day that decision came down.

(Again, this is not going to happen. But it's kind of funny to think about the possible unintended consequences of challenging parts of the bill.)

[AnOhioan]

1. That would be the best outcome possible

The bill is great...without the mandates. Take that away and I have no problem with the rest.

[PolNewf]

3. People would never pay for healthcare insurance until they were sick

Fast way to bring down the system (not just insurance companies).

[brentspeak]

4. What other health payment system exists in the U.S. besides the insurance industry system?

It wouldn't harm Medicare/Medicaid.

[AnOhioan]

5. The whole system?? Not

No mandate, insurance companies in trouble, then maybe we can get serious and pass a single payer bill.

[Hippo_Tron]

10. SOME people wouldn't

Admittedly it creates a moral hazard problem and potential for people to abuse the system. That said I think the vast majority likes going to see a doctor on a regular basis and likes having prescription drug coverage so they will buy insurance before they get horribly ill.

[still_one]

6. Then when an uninsured person goes to ther emergency room why do I as a tax payer cover them?

That is the same logic you are using, I am mandated to pay for it through taxes. I am also mandated to pay through taxes for wars I don't support, which also make private comapnies very rich

[depakid]

8. Not when you consider how such a decision it would change several hundred other laws

States like Texas, Georgia and Alabama would probably love it, though.

[Bitwit1234]

14. BUT why is the mandate so unacceptable

remember the fine has been struck down. You don't have to pay a fine, and if you are insolvent they government will pay part of the cost of the premiums. I don't find that unacceptable. Just think of all the money that would be saved when people don't have to go to the emergency room for normal service. It would be cheaper and the taxpayer and government and the hospitals wouldn't have to pay out as much money. People should weight those costs against each other.

[SwampG8r]

22. and that is clear thinking

with the mandate it is a slap at the constitution without it its not a bad bill

just dont try to explain that to anyone here or you will become a "pub" talker.....sheesh people get a grip

[bluestateguy]

2. The insurance cos. want the mandate

I could even see them helping the Solicitor General to defend the law in court.

W/out it they would actually be rather screwed, as healthy people without employer based insurance would just go without, until they got sick.

[stray cat]

7. Which mandate? the one to treat those who can't pay for it or the mandate for us to pay for those

who don't buy insurance

[gravity]

9. Striking the mandate would be killing the health care bill

You have to make everyone pay into the pool, or else the reform will fail to achieve its goals.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

11. Quite true, but not necessarily legally true

I honestly don't know that the mandate is inseparable as a legal matter. It may be... or not. It would be an interesting argument.

But it is certainly inseparable as a policy matter.

[grantcart]

18. Well if the goal is to kill off the insurance industry and get single payer

this would be the quickest way to get there.

[gravity]

19. The quickest way to achieve single payer is to pass a law doing so

A more realistic way of achieving single payer is to include a public option in the health insurance exchanges and build from there.

These ideas of destroying the healthcare system so that there is no other possible solution but single payer would not work well in practice.

[Thrill]

12. If they strike down that. I don't see how states can demand we buy Auto insurance

[AnOhioan]

13. Apples and oranges

One does not need to own a car, especially in cities with adequate mass transit. Therefore one does not need to purchase auto insurance.

A mandate to purchase health insurance is completely different.

[high density]

15. So don't purchase health insurance; pay the tax instead. NM

[phleshdef]

16. Actually its more like apples and crab apples. But its a moot point considering no one HAS to buy it

You can pay the 2% tax or whatever it is for not having it.

[grantcart]

17. Well it will be the first time the SC actually executed someone

Now that companies are people taking out the mandate and keeping everything else would result in the quick collapse of the insurance industry.

Single Payer and a nice general tax on the rich could be implemented quickly and everyone else would be find and legal.

I wonder how long it will take these genius to figure out that the insurance companies are going to fight them tooth and nail on the mandate?

[discopants]

20. All the more reason to get a Public Option amendment this year

or Medicare for all .... then mandates are a moot point.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

21. PS: I think the term might be 'severable'

I kept typing separable ut I think the formal term for it may be 'severable'

Sorry.

Senile.