SCOTUS, PPACA & American Healthcare: Links from Days 1 & 2

Naysayers, conservative political pundits and Obama “haters” of all stripe – Radical Republicans, TEA Partiers, White Supremacists, Neo Nazis, et al – have vilified and unified against already-enacted federal legislation that foremost, regulates practices by the Health Insurance industry, such as denial of coverage for children born with certain health conditions, denial of coverage for women with breast cancer, cancelling coverage in the midst of medical treatment, exorbitantly raising premium rates without actuarial justification, denying payment for covered services deemed medically necessary and rendered by qualified physicians or others, and more.

Such practices have been rightly demonized and justly described as onerous by almost everyone, even by the most staunch conservatives. So it remains a great mystery why so many are seemingly straining against what they denigrate as “ObamaCare.”

At least two elements of the law – the so-called “Individual Mandate” and the aspect of a financial penalty which must be paid by any person who refuses to purchase health insurance – are the center of the debate, simply because almost every other aspect of the law is clearly able to be regulated by statute. While almost every aspect of human life and behavior can be, and is regulated, there are aspects of enterprise and human endeavors that remain largely unregulated. The Insurance Industry in general, and the Health Insurance Industry in particular remains largely unregulated, and it is those abuses of such power which that industry’s cavalcades of corporate counselors and barristers whom continually petition Congress to turn a blind eye toward their abusive practices.

It is this type rebellion and straining against progress that has remained the hallmark of Republican obstructionism for the last 40 or 50 years.

Today, the court will be hearing argument whether or not the Medicaid provisions unduly infringe on the states and whether, if the individual mandate is unconstitutional, the rest of the health-reform statute can survive.

The case before the United States Supreme Court  in Florida v Health & Human Services

http://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/PPAACA.aspx

11-398
Department of Health and Human Services, et al., v. Florida, et al.
Petition for a Writ of Certiorari
Appendix to Petition
Brief of Private Respondents
Brief of State Respondents
Reply Brief
The American Bar Association has provided a link to the briefs at the merits stage of this case at this link^* for the Anti-Injunction Act issue and this link^* for the Minimum Coverage Provision issue.
Audio/Transcripts (Monday)
Audio/Transcripts (Tuesday)