The Tenth Amendment and What it means to Obamacare

The Tenth Amendment and What it means to Obamacare

Al Ritter 

In much the same way that States power reigns supreme in regulations on firearms, Healthcare is regulated by the very same Amendment.

Amendment X (1791)

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. 

In other words things not mentioned in the Constitution follow under States jurisdiction.  

As a result each state legislature mandates what things have to be covered by insurance companies to residents of their state. At last count 66 things have to be covered by insurance companies under Maryland law. People are mistakenly under the premise that buying insurance in another state will save them money somehow. For instance if Iowa had say had only 10 mandates required of insurance companies and Maryland had 66, whose insurance do you think would be cheaper? 

We already “buy over state lines,” if you think about it, the main office for your insurance company is most likely in another state already. Sadly that means nothing, because that out of state company has to adhere to your state’s mandates to do business there. 

The Affordable Care Act changed some basic premises about healthcare in America, first by a simple

Majority vote Congress has bypassed the tenth Amendment by removing State Sovereignty in the matter of healthcare. As part of the ACA, the federal government has also added their own mandates to your states mandates. Some of the mandates may overlap, some may not. One thing IS for certain though…..NO mandates have been removed! 

As you can now see, buying health insurance over state lines would require even more intervention by the federal government. They would have to override every state’s individual mandate and come together with federal mandates to make every state come into compliance. If every state then had the same mandates chances of one state’s premiums being lower than another are less likely. 

Unless the federal government changes MAJOR things regarding healthcare and reduces State’s Sovereignty even more nothing will change. As you can see, we are chasing Unicorns people!