Commerce Clause & Health Care
Commerce Clause and Health Care The Commerce Clause was merely placed in our Constitution to ensure that states couldn’t establish laws or regulations that would hinder with trade and economic commerce, in result gave Congress the power “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” To me, the Commerce Clause was once legitimate in the sense that the economic activity was mainly trade based and to prevent the intense rivalry among states, Congress needed to have the power to control interstate commerce to render conflicts. When creating and establishing the Commerce Clause I believe it could have been thought through and furthermore written in a more distinct and detailed way to accommodate the issues we have had. Because it wasn’t stated, U.S. Supreme Court ruled Congress to control intrastate commerce as long as the commerce significantly affects commerce involving more than one state, resulting from Gibbons v. Ogden. Sometimes I wonder if it’s realistic to think Congress will get to the point of controlling every aspect of our life, until something like the Affordable Care Act comes into consideration and keeps me questioning, what will be next. The Government’s argue is, under the Commerce Clause that Congress has the power to mandate the Affordable Care Act. Their philosophy is that Congress can demand people to buy health insurance, and if they refuse, then it would be affecting interstate commerce weakening the Act’s other developments. Their reasoning is that there are individuals who currently do not have medical insurance that are making a remarkable amount of visits to the doctor. In result, leaving hospitals reaching out to insurance companies to recover what they didn’t get paid for treating the non-insured. Consequently, insurance companies will start raising premiums higher and higher which will penalize those who already have insurance and those who reach out for insurance where premiums