The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld President Barack Obama's health care reform law in a 5-4 ruling, sending the president into the November election with a major victory under his belt.
The heart of the issue surrounds the individual mandate clause, which required Americans to buy health care coverage or face penalties.
The justices ruled that mandate fell within Congress' power to collect taxes, and is therefore constitutional.
Justices John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion.
The decision in Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services comes as something of a surprise after the generally hostile reception the law received during the six hours of oral arguments held over three days in March. But by siding with the court's four Democratic appointees, Chief Justice Roberts avoided the delegitimizing taint of politics that surrounds a party-line vote while passing Obamacare's fate back to the elected branches. GOP candidates and incumbents will surely spend the rest of the 2012 campaign season running against the Supreme Court and for repeal of the law.
Since health care reform has long been a dividing issue among the population, we're curious what locals in the town of Smithtown think about the ruling. Let us know in the comments and answer our poll.
1. How many of you think President Obama is a Muslim? And why? And if you do, why do you think he regularly goes to church? 2. Why does that matter to you? 3. Do you believe that the healthcare law adds death panels? Where is that in the law? What does it actually say? 4. Do you believe that health insurance companies don't already have death panels? 5. Do you have Medicare? Who do you believe provides Medicare? 6. Do you have health insurance? If you don't, how do you pay for hospitals doctors and labs? 7. Did you know that the US spends 50% more per capita on health care yet a far lower percentage of the population has health coverage then most countries with so callled socialized medicine?
do you even have a clue as to the PERCENTAGE of the wealthier people, and corporations income that go to taxes? It's pretty embarrassing to those who unfortunately do not earn as much due to "luck"? or lack of education or just aren't willing to work as hard or risk as much? to earn more. This Country was built on FREEDOM and OPPORTUNITY. I put MYSELF through the education process with no HANDOUTS and paid back every dime of student loans. I also put up every cent I had and risked everything I had to start a business, Do you really believe that I should have to pay over 65% RIGHT now of my income so someone who didn't work as hard or risk as much as I, can kick back and collect from the SYSTEM? while they pay 20% of their income and constantly have their hand out?
1. In 2 plus years out, I've applied for over 500 jobs. Most recruiters have made it very clear their firms won't hire the unemployed. 2. I've gone after any and all training to make my hard earned IT skills more relevent today. I is still made clear to me that employers only hire people currently working hose work skills are a 100% match to their needs. 3. In my line of work, IT bosses scream they can't get talent. What they can't get is minimum wage talent for very hi tech skills. This is their excuse for shipping huge numbers of jobs off to Bangalore, Mumbai and Manila, and for going after every H1B visa they can get. 4. Property taxes out here on Long Island are obscenely high. Add to that health insurance that costs more here then anywhere else in the world. Specifically, costs for individuals to buy on their own. An employer could ensure me for $3-400 a month, but for me to get the same coverage costs over $1300 a month. Add to that my T1 diabetic daughter, etc. At the same price - at least. I'm not lazy, I actually had decent savings once just in case, and when I was still employed worked 60 plus hour weeks with no overtime pay because my employers wouldn't hire enough staff to carry the work load. And add those hours to what was 4 hours a day commuting on the Long Island Snail road. No, I'm not lazy, I'd go back to that hell in an instant just to be able to support my family.
Australia: Population 22 million Switzerland: Population 7.6 million USA: Population 315 million California: Population 38 million Which country do you think has more freeloaders? Do I need to discuss the immigration issues or is it painfully obvious that every other country is in immigration lockdown mode except the US (or completely surrounded by water)? So in short it's much easier to implement national healthcare to a relativly small population along with the least amount of freeloaders. The US government encourages it's citizens to abuse entitlements as well as having a very lax immigration system. Obamacare is doomed to fail before it even starts because the government doesn't know how to say NO to the abusers.
BTW, I actually support it, at least until we get all age Medicare finally. As to robkoz, most of the Western world has some form of 'romneycare'. And funny thing, healthcare costs far less per capita in all those countries then it does here. And funnier yet, if you go to one of these countries and get sick, they'll take good care of you, and probably not charge you anything. Even Cuba! The reason is simple; we put so much of our healthcare money into making insurance company bosses and stockholders rich. Plus drug companies, and lately many hospitals. In most other countries, they are single payor, sometimes public doctors, sometimes not. But healthcare is decent in many and costs the countries far less and makes them more competitive in world markets.
I seriously doubt that ALL conservatives want to see everyone dead. You really need to try to see both sides of the issues and not be so closed minded and blinded by anger
You should also check your facts about the percentages of taxes some millionaires are paying before you mouth off... You might learn something.
Admittedly, the idea of a low-cost, universal health care system that covers everyone is arguably a noble goal. That's the vision that was sold to the American people with Obamacare: lowers insurance costs, no new taxes, freedom to choose, and total transparency. What we got instead was a law written largely by insurance companies and health care interests which raised health insurance costs, monopolized the health care system, introduced trillions in new taxes, limited freedom of choice and has been steeped in secret government deals with "sick care" corporate interests. Obamacare, in other words, has become the Great Swindle. It's time we all woke up and took an honest look at what Obamacare really IS rather than what was sold to us: http://www.naturalnews.com/036361_Obamacare_tax_swindle.html
The law is not perfect. It does enrich insurance companies to a point, yet finally makes them spend most of what they take in on - get this - health care. Some people will get insurance rebates soon - if their insurer was putting too much of their premiums into things like executive pay. No, what there should be is Medicare for all, and yes, there would be a cost for it. But overall, Americans pay far more for health care then do people in any other western country. That must change!
As to no more middle class, the Dubya tax cuts were designed to make the rich far richer and to pretend to give a little to the middle class. But the Republican sanctioned destruction of unions, the huge layoffs of civil service workers, those and more are destroying the middle class now. Recently Romney said that even though many cops, firemen and teachers have lost their jobs, that far more needed to still lose their jobs, that we have way too many of them. Also, offshoring of decent US jobs is destroying the middle class. We, the middle class, are a dying group.
1. Obamacare, correctly known as Romneycare, or NewtCare - it is a compilation of REPUBLICAN proposals over a number of years that Obama figured would help some and ought to pass since every single piece of it came from Republicans - who disavowed it the moment Obama supported it. 2. If there is one thing that Republicans are working on harder in much of the country then in defeating their own health care proposals, it is doing everything it can to cut back on the number of properly registered Latino and African American voters from actually casting their votes on Election Day in November. 3. If you have any confusion about who is paying to defeat Romneycare, push anti-voting initiatives, suppress women's reproductive rights; Google the Koch Brothers, and then move on from there to find their friends. 4. If you wonder whose side Mitt Romney is actually on in anything - that's easy - his. Remember - he said "I love to fire people". Remember - Bain Capital's claim to fame - save a few companies, squeeze the living daylights out of a bunch of others, offshore as many American jobs as possible, get even richer by having tax protected offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. Are any of us in Commack rich enough to afford the lies and the attack on the middle class that he such a huge part of?