One of the most unsavory remnants of the Obama era is known as the “private mandate,” a requirement that every citizen purchase health care insurance from a private corporation, or face a severe penalty. This requirement led to a new bureaucracy that tracked every American to make sure we had insurance. It was suffocating and onerous – the health insurance industry (“Americas Health Insurance Providers,” or AHIP for short) bullying us into buying their crappy products, using Obama as a sock puppet.

The Affordable Care Act, ACA, or “Obamacare” (as if) was challenged in court on this basis, and was spared by a 2012 ruling that said that the penalty is a tax, and Congress has the power to tax. I do not know if this was an unintended consequence, or if the people around Trump are really that clever, but in late 2017 as part of a broad tax bill, Congress eliminated the penalty. The Fifth Circuit recently held that 2017 act constitutional, and here is the catch: The “attributes that saved the [ACA] statute because it could be read as a tax no longer exist.” The writing on the wall says Obamacare is dead! Long live Obamacare!

Continue reading “Is Obamacare dead? Hurray! Long live Obamacare!” →