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what's the concept we are going to deal with today
today we're going to talk about
whether the federal government can require Americans to purchase health care insurance
and you're finding this concept rolling throughout the news
of course recently congress passed as you know sweeping health care reform
that will require most Americans to purchase some health care plan
by the year two thousand fourteen how does it require
what are some of the examples of the way
which the federal government
well the federal government will approve
certain health care plans that meet their requirements
and unless you have
one of those plans
you'll be fined
a lot of money what's wrong with that
well some people contend that
this power does not belong to the federal government that the federal government doesn't have a
right to make that choice for them
and their claiming that the government's
new law
interfers with basic concepts of liberty that are fundamental to the American society yes I think
that's
that that last piece you mentioned is
what generating all this heat and resistance this idea that it's offending some type of liberty
exactly
in fact there're several states and public interest organizations
are suing the government
for the right not to purchase health insurance according to this law
explain a little bit to our students how that works how can they
sue the government or what can they do about unraveling this
right well
their their
the law suits which are pending right
now
are based on a theory that the tenth amendment to the constitution says
whatever power if not given to the federal government by the constitution is reserved to the
states or the people
so they claim that the constitution does not give the federal government the power to make
people buy health insurance
and therefore the federal government cannot take that power for itself
now are there really any people that don't want insurance
health insurance
there are actually
there are people who at least want the right
not to have health insurance
the federal government will
will probably argue that it has the right to regulate interstate commerce
and will probably try to argue that you know
buying health plans especially in different states
is part of commerce
and that is how congress has the power to force people to do this but they're certainly are people
who based on certain values
libertian values
feel
like it's not worth this added expansion of federal government power
alright
this story is going to unfold for a long time yes it will what do you think students
or look for as they follow this story
well
I think a lot of students
like this health care plan especially because it allows
allows parents to cover their children until the age of twenty six for example there're some things
that benefit a lot of people so
I'd like students to consider
whether the federal actually has the power to mandate that people buy health care insurance
or not