WyBlog

How is Obamacare "interstate commerce" if I can't buy insurance from another state?

To almost no one's surprise a federal District Court judge has ruled in favor of the individual mandate in Obamacare.

U.S. District Court Judge George Steeh ruled Thursday that the so-called individual mandate — a requirement President Barack Obama opposed during the presidential campaign but later embraced as part of sweeping changes — falls squarely within Congress's ability under the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce.

Allahpundit notes that this really is well in line with the Supreme Court's ridiculously expansive Commerce Clause jurisprudence. Which alas is true, but not because the Supreme Court is correct. They may have sent themselves down a rathole while concocting a rational for FDR's New Deal but that doesn't mean they can't be persuaded to see the error of their ways.

On the other hand, I actually wish the purchase of health insurance was interstate commerce. True interstate commerce, as in I can buy health insurance from a company that is in another state. Like New York, where the RPI alumni association offers a Blue Cross plan which is 35% cheaper than the crappy Aetna plan I'm forced to buy here in New Jersey. Oh sure, Blue Cross has a "New Jersey" plan, it's even more expensive than Aetna.

But right over the border there's that tantalizing "New York" plan, taunting me with its lower premiums and better benefits. True "interstate commerce" would mean that I could buy it.

There's one telling line from Judge Steeh's decision.

The health care market is unlike other markets.

Ayup. If I want a sofa I can buy it in New York, or Oregon. And there is no government agency telling the sofa manufacturers which fabrics and designs they must sell. There's no "New Jersey" sofa. But in health care a bunch of Trenton bureaucrats get to decide which plans I'm allowed to buy. If my needs don't happen to fit into one of their designated plans, tough.

Obamacare does nothing to alter this model. In fact it restricts my health insurance purchasing options even more by requiring me to participate in an "insurance exchange" set up and administered by those same Trenton bureaucrats. Now they're not just specifying which sofa I can buy, they're forcing me to buy the sofa from them too.

That my friends is the antithesis of freedom.

(Via Memeorandum)

UPDATE 09 Oct 2010 16:03:
Quoted and linked by The New York Times!

How freakin' cool is that?

Posted at 10:15 by Chris Wysocki   [/obamacare]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |
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