Health Care

IS IT CONSTITUTIONAL FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO MAKE HEALTH CARE CHOICES FOR YOU?

Ninth Amendment: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Health care is another responsibility that America’s founders chose not to give to the federal government and therefore, according to the 10^th Amendment, left to the states. Yet, advocates of bigger government think the federal government has the right to mandate that individuals purchase health insurance, to make health care on insurance decisions on behalf of the consumer, and to essentially adopt health care administration as a role of the federal government. Congress should not selectively interpret the Constitution for its own aims.America’s greatness has always been based on choice. Individuals should be in the driver’s seat in making health care decisions and have as many options to choose from as possible. When the government makes these decisions, it has far exceeded its role. 

Commerce Clause: To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes 

Proponents of government-run health care and other sweeping federal expansions often use the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3) to justify federal intervention in state affairs. James Madison held the view that, in the Commerce Clause, to “regulate” meant to “keep regular” by preventing dangerous state-imposed tariffs that favored in-state businesses. However, the ironic fact is that Congress has failed in the intended meaning of this clause when it comes to health insurance. An appropriate use for the Commerce Clause would be to prohibit states from preventing insurance companies from selling policies out of state instead of using this clause to justify government administered health care.

In fact, without amending the U.S. Constitution, it can easily be inferred that a federally run health plan is a clear violation of the role of federal government, and a clear violation of the principle of federalism. Andrew Napolitano wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “One goes to a physician not to engage in commercial activity, as the Framers of the Constitution understood, but to improve one's health. And the practice of medicine, much like public school safety, has been regulated by states for the past century.”[1] 

"There are so many serious problems raised by the nationalization of medicine that we cannot mention even all the more important ones." ~ Frederic Hayek (1960)

 The federal government cannot mandate health insurance. Ken Klukowski of the American Civil Rights Union states that an individual mandate to buy health insurance would be “glaringly unconstitutional” because “…those refusing to get insurance would be subject to a fine, and refusing to pay would be a misdemeanor crime, punishable by another fine or even jail time.”[2] Additionally, public health care would enable government officials to ration health care. The American Enterprise Institute reported, “Although today’s politicians would never be caught acknowledging that cost considerations might sometimes justify denying a patient a desirable product or service, they are on the brink of creating a system in which government (not individuals looking out for their own welfare) will soon have to preside over the rationing of valuable health services.”[3] In 1960, in the Constitution of Liberty, Frederic Hayek emphasized that nationalized health care would cause doctors to become "paid servants of the state" and that political circumstances make it unlikely that such policies would ever be abandoned once adopted.[4]

Health care is clearly an issue to be handled at the state level – where innovation and competition exist. Ultimately, individuals were intended to make their health care choices – not the government. There are ways to continue to improve health care, but it is clear that our founders would not recommend a federal takeover as the solution. Federalism and free enterprise must endure to produce long term improvements.