Spokane7
61°
December 16, 2010 in Nation/World
20 states ask judge to throw out Obama health law
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Attorneys for 20 states fighting the new federal health care law told a judge today it will expand the government’s powers in dangerous and unintended ways.
The states want U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson to issue a summary judgment throwing out the health care law without a full trial. They argue it violates people’s rights by forcing them to buy health insurance by 2014 or face penalties.
“The act would leave more constitutional damage in its wake than any other statute in our history,” David Rivkin, an attorney for the states, told Vinson.
President Barack Obama’s administration counters that Americans should not be allowed to opt out of the overhaul because everyone requires medical care. Government attorneys say the states do not have standing to challenge the law and want the case dismissed.
Vinson, who was appointed to the bench almost 30 years ago by President Ronald Reagan, heard arguments Thursday but said he will rule later.
In a separate case, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson earlier this week became the first federal judge to strike down a key portion of the law when he sided with the state of Virginia and ruled the insurance requirement unconstitutional. That case is likely to go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Two other federal judges have upheld the insurance requirement.
In Florida, Vinson questioned how the government could halt the massive changes to the nation’s health care system that have already begun. Rivkin told him the constitutional violations are more important.
The judge questioned the Obama administration attorneys about whether the government is reaching beyond its power to regulate interstate commerce by requiring citizens to purchase health insurance or face tax penalties.
“A lot of people, myself included for years, have no health insurance,” said Vinson, who described being a law student and paying cash to the doctor who delivered his first child.
“It amounted to about $100 a pound,” he said, laughing.
Vinson also grilled government lawyers about their contention that people can be required to have health insurance because everyone needs medical care. Under that logic, he said, Americans could be forced to wear shoes or buy groceries or clothes.
But administration attorney Ian Heath Gershengorn said health insurance is different because it covers catastrophic injuries and chronic diseases.
“Those costs, when they come, are unpredictable and substantial,” he said.
Gershengorn also defended the administration against the states’ claim that it was coercing them into participating in the health care overhaul. The states say the have no choice but to go along with the federal program because billions in Medicaid dollars are at stake.
Gershengorn said the states see huge benefits from Medicaid and the federal government is covering the bulk of the health care overhaul costs.
The other states involved in the lawsuit are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington.
© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Obama honors Medal of Freedom recipients as heroes 
horse_feathers on December 16 at 12:59 p.m.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL, a small difficulty to be overcome by the libs and progressives.
Liberty_Bell on December 16 at 1:54 p.m.
Why 20 States, it only takes 1.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/121310virginiahcruling.pdf
hawken on December 16 at 1:58 p.m.
Bell…. true.
Twenty, I think is more compelling representing 40% of the states.
Liberty_Bell on December 16 at 2:10 p.m.
It must be that $100.00 question?
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Benjamin Franklin
johnclarke on December 16 at 2:12 p.m.
Without single payer and the elimination of “for profit” health insurance, I have no interest in health care reform. It fails to address the real problem, insurance companies.
Liberty_Bell on December 16 at 2:21 p.m.
Well actually, the removal of those anti-trust exemptions, would reform it in a hurry, for free.
Removing competetion in the market, for legal price fixing just adds to the cost..
Go ask Standard Oil, why Teddy Roosevelt, enforced the Sherman Act, and made Exxon and Mobil, with Bill Clinton whoallowed them to merge back togather, and then went after Microsoft for Anti-trust?
I guess Rodger Sherman’s Committee who wrote the Declaration, in 1776, was just as confusing as the Sherman Act of 1890, shortly after the Senator’s Big Brother William T. Burnt Atlanta to the Ground, shown best in that Health Care Reform Act, of September 11, 1864.
johnclarke on December 16 at 2:57 p.m.
I’d like to say that I understand what you just said LB, but I don’t. Facts are facts, we pay way too much for what we get. Why? Duh. Profit. We are funding insurance companies that provide nothing in return, other than huge salaries for their executives.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5504Z320090601
Liberty_Bell on December 16 at 3:44 p.m.
Oh, sorry you don’t get it.
Google up the Sherman Act.
Everyone knows the General’s Health Care Reform Act, Just go ask Obama.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/23/repealing-antitrust-exemption-health-insurance-companies-0
Liberty_Bell on December 16 at 3:52 p.m.
Health Care Reform, at it’s finest hour!
http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/sherman/sherman-to-burn-atlanta.html
Liberty_Bell on December 16 at 3:56 p.m.
And his baby brother;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act
Cougardave on December 16 at 4:45 p.m.
Does this mean we all don’t have to be on mecicaid? Well….that’s a relief.
hawken on December 16 at 5:13 p.m.
This is a very good article on Health Care Reform. It is a bit longer than most. But, I read the complete article and found it very interesting and persuasive. McAllen, TX has the highest health care costs in the U.S., second to Miami.
I’ve cited a few quotes. For those whom really have an interest in better understanding some real issues concerning the costs of our health care should read this whole article.
BEGINNING QUOTES:
“The primary cause of McAllen’s extreme costs was, very simply, the across-the-board overuse of medicine.
Americans like to believe that, with most things, more is better. But research suggests that where medicine is concerned it may actually be worse. For example, Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic dominates the scene, has fantastically high levels of technological capability and quality, but its Medicare spending is in the lowest fifteen per cent of the country—$6,688 per enrollee in 2006, which is eight thousand dollars less than the figure for McAllen.
Two economists working at Dartmouth, Katherine Baicker and Amitabh Chandra, found that the more money Medicare spent per person in a given state the lower that state’s quality ranking tended to be. In fact, the four states with the highest levels of spending—Louisiana, Texas, California, and Florida—were near the bottom of the national rankings on the quality of patient care.
As America struggles to extend health-care coverage while curbing health-care costs, we face a decision that is more important than whether we have a public-insurance option, more important than whether we will have a single-payer system in the long run or a mixture of public and private insurance, as we do now. The decision is whether we are going to reward the leaders who are trying to build a new generation of Mayos and Grand Junctions. If we don’t, McAllen won’t be an outlier. It will be our future.” END QUOTE
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande#ixzz18KFHahpe
mikeln on December 16 at 5:22 p.m.
This will be the only thing left in this health care bill, anything that would have helped the consumer will be scrapped. This is what the insurance companies paid big money for and they won’t let it go without a fight. Are the right wingers so stupid they can’t see this? Even when their own flunkies say it will stay? We could self insure but the government of the people has been bought and we, the people, were thrown to the wolves.
hawken on December 16 at 5:38 p.m.
mikein….
Can you translate? With a bit more detail, what you just posted @ 5:22pm?
Precisely… what is “This?”
misjustice on December 16 at 6:00 p.m.
The mandate, Chickenhawken.
hawken on December 16 at 6:23 p.m.
misjudgment….
Do you interrupt and talk over people as well?
Seems to me that your ego is way out of control, to answer a question that has been asked of someone else. The one who made the statement. The one who has been asked for clarification concerning the statement they made.
This might be some kind of psychological disorder that you display. I’ll have to do some research on the question.
misjustice on December 16 at 6:46 p.m.
This from Chickenhawken; “Seems to me that your ego is way out of control.” : the a$$hat with over 1913 posts since the middle of September 2010…is accusing someone else of having an out of control ego!
ROFLMFAO!
; )
hawken on December 16 at 8:04 p.m.
misjudgment….
Of course you fail to point out that hyper-left liberals, homosexual liberals and liberals in general, out number conservative posters on this blog by what???? 20, 30, 40, 60 to one?
Do you actually think that you are gong to “intimidate” me from further postings on this blog?
Do you actually think that you will silence my “conservative” point of view?
You can probably imagine how much sleep I loose every night, knowing that the hyper-left actually despises me.
misjustice on December 16 at 8:44 p.m.
Chickenhawken; NEWS ALERT; It’s not just the hyper left that despises you.
hawken on December 16 at 9:21 p.m.
Opps… another failure of the hyper-left…..
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, bowing to Republican opposition to a 1,924-page $1.2 trillion spending measure packed with earmarks, withdrew the bill and said he would work with Republican leaders on a smaller, short-term budget fix to avoid a looming government shutdown.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/16/senate-scrambles-avoid-government-shutdown-gop-forces-read-thon/#ixzz18LLsvp6M
wooglin52 on December 17 at 10:44 a.m.
Of course Obama likes this obamanatin of a healthcare power grab; what would we expect from a President that creates 33 unelected, unconfirmed Czars with great power. Strange he’d pick that title for them. Get ready for this: the “Regulatory Czar” says that ‘free speech on the airwaves’ can be regulated….meaning all the conservative radio talk programs. Look out: the next freedom you lose will be your right to criticize the government.
Thayne on December 18 at 6:20 p.m.
My of my, what a crybaby you are CH (chickenhawk). I’m curious how many of those 20 AGs are republiturds looking to get sympathy from teagaggers. Also, how many of them get campaign donations from the crooks at the health insurance companies. You have to be a complete moron not to see that anytime you let corporations dictate policies and procedures - we’re screwed. How many horror stories of people dying because the insurance company refused to pay for medicine or a procedure that could have kept them alive, are there? If it was just a couple of whinners, I would ignore it, but, there are thousands and thousands of average joes getting raked over the coals by the greedy health insurance fat cats.