Health Care Reform Bill Obama Care - Research Paper Example

Even though, the government is spending billions of dollars every year to help the public, it is not reaching the ordinary people because of the administrative problems and the exploitation of the private insurance companies. Still United States has the highest healthcare costs compared to some other developed countries. President Obama, even before his election promised that he will make immense changes in the healthcare sector in order to make it more public-friendly. Obama has assured the public before the election that he will increase the insurance coverage, decrease the cost and social burden of healthcare, implement reform in insurance sector and increase the government involvement, once he succeeded in winning the election.

After winning the president election, Obama introduced the legislations (Senate bill and Reconciliation bill) in both houses of the U.S. Congress and succeeded in passing it in March 2010. It is estimated that more than 50 million American citizens do not have the health insurance coverage at present. One of the major criticisms labeled against Obama’s health care bills is the annual increases in healthcare costs per person and the enormous budgetary strain this bill may cause on U.S. state and federal governments.

In other words, The nationalization of health care should be unconstitutional because it conflicts with American civil liberties, and it allows some Americans to live off of the government rather than making something themselves.  “A U.S. district judge in January 2011, Judge Roger Vinson, in Pensacola, Fla., ruled that as a result of the unconstitutionality of the "individual mandate" that requires people to buy insurance, the entire law must be declared void” (Judge Rules Health Care Law Is Unconstitutional).

The court declared that the over involvement of the government in healthcare sector is not necessarily the duty of the government. It is unconstitutional to spend the taxpayer’s money in this way. The primary role or the duty of the government is to give protection to the life and property of the citizen. However, the primary duty of the government does not include the protection of the public health according to the ruling of the court. The court also observed that the Congress does not have the authority or power to pass such a bill according to American constitution.

It is the duty of the Congress to reform or regulate the healthcare market, when we consider the huge size of the health care sector with respect to national economy. However, Congress does not have the authority to put the entire responsibility of keeping the health of the public intact, upon the government. A federal judge in Virginia also ruled against the bill a week before. The judge declared that the “law's requirement that citizens buy health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014 is invalid” (O’Dell).

However, the Obama administration argued that the above clause was attached in the law based on a constitutional provision, giving Congress power to regulate interstate commerce. Even though the Congress argued in favor of the bill, the court rejected the argument of Congress, citing reasons that: The means of payment for services in the interstate health care market is an economic activity that substantially affects interstate commerce, and the requirement that participants in the health care market have insurance to pay for the services they consume is thus a quintessential exercise of the commerce power (O’