Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act - Essay Example

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The U.S. Supreme Court has declared the constitutionality of the act except for a few passages that it declared to be “taxes” more than anything else. So my question is “If there is a questionable passage in the Affordable Care Act, how can it be declared constitutional and fair to those concerned? The president declared that he would not tax the middle class Americans and yet one of the penalties indicated within Obamacare for those who fail to comply is referenced as a tax. How was it possible for Congress to mandate a new tax within a new health care policy? ”. This is a question that I feel needs to be answered since Obamacare, as it has to be popularly known, affects everyone living in the United States regardless of citizenship and residency status. To begin with, the Affordable Care Act has had shady beginnings and a rocky start as a campaign promise of then candidate Obama to the American people. By promising to provide the people with a comprehensive health care plan that will cover every single person living in this country, he needed to come up with a plan that could actually work for all concerned. His people in Congress out together the Affordable Care Act under his guidance and direction as a fulfillment of that promise. The problem is that the Affordable Care Act has come under close scrutiny and legal challenges from most political and private parties who view the act as a form of dictatorship on the American people. ...
With the legal challenges posed before the Affordable Care Act among the various states in the country, and the state declarations that they would not enact such a government empowering law upon the citizens of their state, the question was then brought before the Supreme Court whose judicial representatives decided that the landmark March 2010 law had a majority of provisions that could be considered as legal and was therefore constitutional in form and content. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (2012) the Affordable Care Act is a , “... comprehensive health care reform law makes health insurance affordable for millions of Americans and protects them against potentially catastrophic medical expenses.” By definition, the Affordable Care Act sounds like it will finally clear up the problem of health care coverage for most Americans since the law will force insurance companies to cover the illnesses of their policy holders and their family alike without the safety net of being able to refuse coverage for certain illnesses during certain situations, those who oppose the law say that this particular vision of the government pertaining to healthcare coverage will not work because the provision will force the insurance companies to eventually shut down as they try to cover all pre-existing conditions and current conditions of their policy holders regardless of company guidelines. However, everyone has a bone to pick with the fact that the Affordable Care Act has a clear provision that dictates upon every American citizen to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty for not having any coverage. Those who oppose the law claim that this is a direct violation of the ...Download file to see next pages Read More