California Libertarian Alliance

It is an important but often overlooked fact that the individual mandate to purchase health insurance, the least popular and most constitutionally dubious provision in the health care overhaul signed last year by President Obama, originated at The Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank with strong ties to congressional Republicans. In between its inception at Heritage and its passage as one of the key elements of ObamaCare, it got a trial run in Massachusetts in the state-based health care overhaul passed by current GOP presidential wannabe Mitt Romney, who on Tuesday admitted having gotten the idea for the mandate in part from Heritage.

Peter Suderman, writing @ reason.com, quotes a James Taranto article in the Wall Street Journal:
“Heritage did put forward the idea of an individual mandate, though it predated HillaryCare by several years.”

Taranto notes that at the time Heritage developed the idea ” “Universal health care” was neither already established nor inevitable,” and that he thought “the foundation had made a serious philosophical and strategic error in accepting rather than disputing the left-liberal notion that the provision of “quality, affordable health care” to everyone was a proper role of government.”

Full column by Peter Suderman @ http://reason.com/blog/2011/10/20/democrats-learned-about-obamac

“A new Rasmussen poll has found that “Support for repeal of the new national health care plan has jumped to its highest level ever.” Sixty-three percent of likely voters now want a repeal of the Obamacare law, according to the poll conducted May 22–23. “Prior to today,” Rasmussen announced that “weekly polling had shown support for repeal ranging from 54% to 58%.”

“The Rasmussen poll appeared to conflict with a CBS News poll that found opposition to Obama’s health care law strong but waning. “Public support for President Obama’s health care reforms has increased since they were signed into law in March, a new CBS News poll shows — 43 percent of Americans now support the measures, up from 32 percent.” While last weekend’s CBS poll found the numbers closer than Rassmussen, it too found that more oppose Obama’s health care law (47 percent) than support it (43 percent).”

“Both polls may be right, however, because they surveyed different audiences. The CBS poll surveyed 1,054 “adults,” while Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 “likely voters.” A survey of adults is a raw opinion poll, but surveying “likely voters” has traditionally been a much more accurate predictor of how the American people have registered their views at the voting booth.”

full column by Thomas Eddlem @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/health-care/3627-opposition-to-obamacare-strengthens-among-voters

“The ink was barely dry on President Barack Obama’s signature before the RAND Corp. released a report concluding that, not only would the hard-won health care package fail to curb health insurance premium increases, but the bill itself would drive premiums for young people up as much as 17 percent.”

“This should not have been a surprise: the Congressional Budget Office had already warned that the plan would do almost nothing to reduce premium hikes. And when New York implemented the same type of insurance reforms in the 1980s, it led to an increase of nearly $500 per year for young people. But somehow, the media didn’t pay much attention.”

“And, of course, during the health care debate, no presidential speech was complete without a promise that “if you have health insurance today, and you like it, you can keep it.” But the Congressional Budget Office now says that as many as 10 million workers will lose their current insurance under Obamacare…”

Michael Tanner looks at the predicted costs of health care reform @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11738

“Last week I introduced a very important piece of legislation that I hope will gain as much or more support as my Audit the Fed bill. HR 4995, the End the Mandate Act will repeal provisions of the newly passed health insurance reform bill that give the government the power to force Americans to purchase government-approved health insurance. “

“The whole bill is rotten, but this provision especially is a blatant violation of the Constitution. Defenders claim the Congress’s constitutional authority to regulate “interstate commerce” gives it the power to do this. However, as Judge Andrew Napolitano and other distinguished legal scholars and commentators have pointed out, even the broadest definition of “regulating interstate commerce” cannot reasonably encompass forcing Americans to engage in commerce by purchasing health insurance. Not only is it unconstitutional; it is a violation of the basic freedom to make our own decisions regarding how best to meet the health care needs of ourselves and our families.”

 Rep. Ron Paul explains his push to repeal the insurance mandate @ http://www.smallgovtimes.com/2010/04/ron-paul-on-his-end-the-mandate-push/

“Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have just run major stories on presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s difficulties in getting people to understand the difference between his Massachusetts universal-health-care plan, which featured an individual mandate, subsidies, and forbidding insurance companies to deny coverage for preexisting conditions, and the Obama-Reid-Pelosi plan, which features an individual mandate, subsidies, and forbidding insurance companies to deny coverage for preexisting conditions.”

“President Obama is putting Romney on the spot by telling Matt Lauer that his bill is similar to Romney’s. Daniel Gross of Newsweek recommends that Obama hire Romney — someone who has management experience, no current job, and “relevant experience in implementing a large-scale health-care reform program, ideally one that involved using an individual mandate and the private insurance system to attain near-universal health insurance” — to run ObamaCare.”

David Boaz looks at the new face of big government conservatism @ http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/04/12/can-romney-lead-the-fight-against-obamacare/

“Following months of heated public debate and aggressive closed-door negotiations, Congress finally cast a historic vote on healthcare late Sunday evening. It was truly a sad weekend on the House floor as we witnessed further dismantling of the Constitution, disregard of the will of the people, explosive expansion of the reach of government, unprecedented corporate favoritism, and the impending end of quality healthcare as we know it.”

Rep. Ron Paul looks at the high cost of healthcare reform @ http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/004010.html

“…the real reason why ObamaCare is so unpopular is that it is proposing a giant expansion of the entitlement state precisely when this state everywhere is coming apart: here and abroad; at the federal level and the state; in the public sector and the private. Suggesting a giant government takeover of a sixth of the economy can’t be a popular selling point in a country whose DNA has a programmed hostility to Big Government.”

Shikha Dalma sees Obamacare bringing the Democrats down the way the Iraq War brought the Republicans down @ http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/09/obamacare-health-democrats-congress-opinions-columnists-shikha-dalmia.html?boxes=opinionschannelmostpopular

“Far from settling the issue once and for all, the bill will usher even fiercer confrontations—not only on health care but on constitutional matters of governance as well—that will make the current battle look like the political equivalent of a spit-ball fight.”

“The Senate and the House begin reconciling their versions of health care “reform” this week. But everyone—barring die-hard Obama supporters—now believes that the outcome is going to be more botched than Michael Jackson’s nose. There is a growing consensus in both the right and the left that the individual mandate provision, which is almost certain to be part of the final bill, represents a kind of neo-feudalism.”

Shikha Dalma warns of chronic political warfare if Obama’s health care reform passes @ http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/15/beware-the-obamacare-revolutio