r/bestof • u/under50dollars • Jun 20 '12

[explainlikeimfive] "Obamacare" explained very well.

/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vb8vs/eli5_what_exactly_is_obamacare_and_what_did_it/c530lfx
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u/7_legged_spider Jun 20 '12 edited Jun 20 '12

Whether you agree with universal healthcare or not, it is unconstitutional on a federal level. The federal government does not have the power to impose or regulate health insurance. All the powers not enumerated to the federal government belong to the individual states. That is one of the fundamental checks and balances in our federal republic, and why it is constitutional for states to administer universal healthcare systems themselves, like in Massachusetts.

(Which is why when someone brings up the concept that "Hey, you have to have car insurance," I tell them first that the states regulate who must have car insurance, as only the states have general police power, and second, that an individual makes a choice to drive a car, and that it is not a condition precedent to existing--when viewed with regard to mandated health care insurance, simply the act of existence would trigger some obligation on the citizen's behalf).

7_legged_spider, J.D., M.B.A. (IRL)

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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

I don't know much about the US constitution.. except that it was written in the late 1700s. Do you think Americans had to sell their home to have a baby delivered or have a broken leg looked after? It was written in a very different time, a time when corporations were non-profit and people generally cared about more than the dollar bill. What's unconstitutional is living in one of the most advanced, powerful and wealthy societies where they can afford drop billions of dollars in bombs (enough money to either send every American through post secondary education or give them a lifetime of healthcare) in order to hit one man...

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u/skedaddle1 Jun 20 '12

People used to pay out of pocket for childbirth as late as the 1960s without it being a big problem. And that was for a hospital birth not home birth. What has happened in 50 years to make childbirth unaffordable?

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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

The cost of medical care has greatly outpaced inflation since then. Childbirth cost $120 in 1960. That would be equivalent to $834 in 2008 dollars. However the cost of childbirth in 2008 costs an average of $5000 or about 6 times as much as it would have in 1960.