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Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by arca_vorago on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @10:59AM (#13977102)
I think that does sound right. I never understood why healthcare was so tied to employers in the first place. Healthcare should be entireley independent of employment status in my opinion... but, and I'm sure given HN demographics I'm likely to be in the minority, I find the ACA to be unconstitutional, specifically the mandate, so I have recently been trying to bone up on the legal discussion surrounding the general welfare and commerce clauses to understand the nuance left there for single payer but without a mandate.
Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by pdonis on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @11:29AM (#13977424)
> I have recently been trying to bone up on the legal discussion surrounding the general welfare and commerce clauses

You will find that the jurisprudence surrounding those clauses bears no resemblance whatever to what the clauses actually say. For example, look up Wickard v. Filburn and see if you think that Supreme Court decision used a reasonable interpretation of what Congress can regulate under the guise of "interstate commerce".

Interestingly, though, the clause under which the individual mandate was found constitutional was actually the Taxing Clause--the Supreme Court said it was not constitutional under either the Commerce Clause or the Necessary and Proper Clause, which was how the government had argued the case. In other words, the Supreme Court said that, while it was not constitutional to require everyone to purchase health insurance, it was constitutional to tax people who didn't. Go figure.

The full opinion is here:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf

Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by arca_vorago on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @02:00PM (#13978957)
Yeah I disagree with the pivotal point they used for that decision, that it wasn't a direct tax, it seems very much like a direct tax to me.
Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by orangecat on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @11:06AM (#13977168)
I never understood why healthcare was so tied to employers in the first place.

Wage controls during WW2: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1140451...

Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by arca_vorago on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @11:14AM (#13977262)
Which if I remember correctly were very highly contested on constitutional grounds as well.
Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by pdonis on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @11:36AM (#13977487)
Yep. Here's the Supreme Court decision that upheld them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakus_v._United_States

Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by MaysonL on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @04:53PM (#13990472)
It started during World War II when employers were prohibited from offering wage increases to poach employees, and used medical insurance as an incentive to job-switch.
Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by nshepperd on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @11:15AM (#13977277)
Because employers can provide group health insurance plans.

Without either the individual mandate (which is itself a half-assed approximation to single payer healthcare) or group health insurance (through employers or some other non-health-related cooperative), people put off getting health insurance until they get sick, the risk pool stops being a pool and the whole concept of "insurance" falls apart.

Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by icebraining on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @04:25PM (#13980340)
You can't put off insurance until you get sick, unless the insurance can't deny you for having a precondition.
Re:Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me by nshepperd on Tuesday March 28, 2017 @04:46PM (#13980520)
Yes, that's the problem.