Live Thread: SCOTUS hearings on Obamacare [Day 3 Arguments; Post 153+]

National Review ^ | 0/26/2012 | Avik Roy

[alancarp]

[Introducing new scum lawyer H. Bartow Farr - working for the Left...I guess that was a personal comment.]
[source: twitter.com, WSJ’s Brent Kendall, via @janetadamy, #supremecourt tag]

Farr argues all other provisions of law should remain in place even if insurance mandate found unconstitutional.
Ginsburg and Kagan say Congress itself said individual mandate, community rating and guaranteed issue were linked.

[Tatze]

Several justices express concern about harming insurers if mandate falls but the rest of the law stays in place
Swing vote Kennedy worries about imposing a “risk” on insurance companies “that Congress never intended.”

I hope Kennedy is truly concerned about that, as we all should be. Invalidating the mandate while keeping the rest of the law is the worst case scenario, worse than leaving the whole law intact.

If insurers must still accept all preexisting conditions, and people are under no mandate to have insurance, then nothing stops people from dropping their insurance now (or not getting in the first place) and buying in only when they are hit with an expensive medical emergency.

Insurers cannot survive in that kind of model, and the road to single payer will become an expressway.

[editor-surveyor]

>> “Invalidating the mandate while keeping the rest of the law is the worst case scenario, worse than leaving the whole law intact.” <<

.
Not so!

The mandate is 90% of what is wrong with Obamacare. As for the rest of it, we do not need “healthcare” nor ‘health’ insurance, and that is the big lesson that all the people need to grasp. Say good-bye to doctors and their poison drugs, and your health will improve, and so will the country.

[alancarp]

[remaining tweets from the third day arguments, plus WSJ links.]
[source of tweets same as before]

Scalia notes there wouldn't be 60 Senate votes to break filibuster and repeal entire law if rest stayed on books.
Scalia said that after court ripped the heart (the mandate) from law he preferred to see the entire creation die.
(#supremecourt @JessBravin) Clement wraps by saying that without mandate, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act can accomplish neither

SCOTUS transcript and audio from this morning are up on this link (WSJ source)

SCOTUS now discussing whether the law's Medicaid expansion is constitutional. For updates, go to this WSJ link.