Florida Judge Makes Ruling, Says Health Care Reform is Unconstitutional

The argument over the health care reform that President Barack Obama pressed so hard for seems to be never-ending. The House of Representatives, which has a strong Republican majority, has voted to repeal the reform already this month. Now, a judge in Florida is taking the stance that the reform is not even constitutional.

So far there have been over two dozen states filing lawsuits claiming that the reform is unconstitutional. The most prominent one has been in Florida.

With a ruling that he presented in a 78-page report, Judge Roger Vinson said that the part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that makes it mandatory for Americans to buy health insurance in the next three years or deal with fines is simply unconstitutional.

Vinson’s statement read, “I must reluctantly conclude that Congress exceeded the bounds of its authority in passing the Act with the individual mandate. That is not to say, of course, that Congress is without power to address the problems and inequities in our health care system.”

Vinson went on to say that because the one section of the bill is unconstitutional and must not be permitted, “the entire Act must be declared void.”

In Florida, it was also debated whether it was lawful or not to make each state increase their Medicaid so more citizens who are in the lower tax brackets and that are not insured can get coverage.

Some states are complaining that even with the assistance of the federal government in paying off the costs of Medicaid, the price tags are still too high for each individual state.

In other suits against Obama’s bill, there have been mixed results. In Virginia, the new law has been ruled unconstitutional as well. However, in two other cases, the health care reform has been ruled perfectly constitutional.

It is practically a certainty that the cases will all result in a huge battle in the Supreme Court.

It is expected that by the end of 2011, the Supreme Court will begin its evaluation of Obama’s health care reform in order to determine once and for all if it is unconstitutional or not.

Obama said of his bill and all of its requirements, “It’s the right thing to do, and I’m confident that the courts will uphold it.”

While it may seem as though it is asking a lot of the American people for all of them to have insurance by 2014, in a country where people like to have control of their fate, do Americans really want to have to depend on the government to help them pay for their medical bills if something were to come up?