Is the Requirement to Buy Health Insurance Constitutional?
The title says it all. This is for a project for my debate class, and we’re doing public forum debate. My team is saying health insurance should not be required. Wouldn’t the government forcing people buy things, such as health insurance be thought of as unconstitutional? Thank you so much. Just generally confused.
Answer
The PPACA is about 1000 pages long and includes a number of provisions. So saying ObamaCare is constitutional or unconstitutional generally misses the point. However, your question is specific to the requirement to have health insurance. That is a valid question.
Essentially our country was so unsure about this it was brought before the supreme court in 2012. The supreme court declared the "mandate" a "tax". It's within legislators power to tax, therefore the tax (and accordingly the "requirement to have coverage") is constitutional.
The fact is, the law doesn't require coverage... it requires a Shared Responsibility tax. One is exempt from that tax if they have coverage. In the case of employers they are exempt if they offer coverage. So the "requirement" is actually more of an easy to qualify for tax exemption.
Read the constitution, specifically section 8 on the power to collect and lay taxes, and feel free to comment with ideas.