Thursday, June 28, 2012

Health Care: Why We Should Care

We are in the last hour before the Supreme Court rules about President Obama's famous health care law and speculation is abound.  Will it be struck down?  Upheld?  No one is quite sure, but everyone has a guess.

I don't.

Some of you may know that one of my undergraduate degrees is in political science with a focus in law.  I studied for the LSATs and considered going to law school.  I decided instead to get my Masters in journalism.  That being said, I've studied the legal system quite a bit.

So amidst this speculation, this uncertainty and uproar, there is a bigger question than "will this be upheld."  That question is "what are the repercussions?"

The effects of this Supreme Court decision are monumental - not just for Obama's presidency, but for our country and the way that we decide on other important issues in the future.

Westboro Baptist Church protests funerals of firefighters or holds up signs saying that "God Hates Fags."  Ask moral Carin if this is ok and I'll give you a resounding "heck no!"  But ask legal Carin and I'll say "absolutely."  The reason that they keep winning in court is because we have the Constitutional right to free speech (with exceptions, of course...this not being one of them).

I know this seems off topic, but my point is that we are standing on a pointy mountain top and all around us are very slippery slopes.  Any way you slice it....someone will be unhappy and someone will take this ruling to the extreme.

So what it comes down to in today's Supreme Court decision is this individual mandate (if you don't know what it is, or are a little fuzzy, I would definitely recommend the Washington Post's breakdown, linked here).  Should government be allowed to force people to purchase something.

Don't they already?

People are outraged that government can now force someone to eat broccoli, as Justice Scalia suggested.  But what about car insurance?  By law, all drivers are forced to have car insurance.  This isn't something that we have to have.  In fact, when I rented a car in New Zealand, they had signs everywhere saying that only about 1/3 of drivers are insured.  So why does the United States require this?  Shouldn't this also go before the Supreme Court?  I could save myself a LOT of money by not being insured against theft, accidents, or trees falling on my car.  If we are outraged by being forced to purchase something, doesn't this count too?

But what about my Constitutional rights?  Nowhere in the Constitution does it explicitly say that government can't make you purchase something, but we are given individual freedom.  So if I have that Constitutional freedom to make my own choices, then surely this act is unconstitutional, right?

And how is this individual freedom interpreted?  Is banning this law a slippery slope to banning pretty much everything? Wouldn't individual freedom mean that I am free to do whatever I want?  Where does that stop?  Am I free to hurt someone, or to burn down a building?  Sure, this is extreme, and people say my rights stop where my fist meets your face (or something like that).  But isn't this just as dangerous?

I don't know what's going to happen today.  But I do know that we need to tread lightly.  If this health care law is upheld by the Supreme Court, we could suddenly have the government intervening with any and all decisions that they think are "right" for us.  Where does it stop?  Can the government decide for me which kind of juice I buy?  Or that I have to purchase apples every time I get cookies?  And if the law is struck down, then thousands of people who benefit from this law will be at a disadvantage.  Our health care system has serious issues. This once bipartisan law suddenly became hotly debated when a Democratic President came into office.  The system is broken.  If this doesn't work...how do we fix it?  I can tell you one thing...pointing fingers is not the way.

So by the time I've finished writing this, there is only 20 minutes until the soon-to-be famous decision.  In only a half an hour, almost half of our country will be in an uproar (either way...the support v. opposition is almost evenly split).  What is the decision?  Who cares?  The better question is...how will this decision impact my country for years to come?

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