National Review Online by Josh Archambault August 2, 2013
The Obama administration’s recent decision to postpone enforcement of the employer mandate, a key provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the House’s recent vote to delay both the employer mandate and the individual mandate (with 35 Democrats joining most Republicans in supporting delay of the employer mandate, and 22 Democrats on the individual mandate) should come as no surprise to close observers of the law’s rocky implementation process. This latest delay joins the growing list of carve-outs granting year-long or multi-year “grace periods” on various ACA rules, which have largely been ignored by the media.
There is bipartisan concern that the ACA tramples on current state regulation of insurance markets. For example, the law mandates federally regulated national insurance plans that ignore the states’ historic role in approving health-care plans. It forces states to allow only plans that offer insurance to everyone regardless of health status (guaranteed issue) and that charge young adults just starting their careers more money to subsidize older and wealthier citizens (modified community rating). These two regulations are the source of many of the headlines popping up around the country detailing the rate shock of premium increases.
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." Thomas Jefferson
"If people can’t trust not only the executive branch but also don’t trust Congress, and don’t trust federal judges, to make sure that we’re abiding by the Constitution with due process and rule of law, then we’re going to have some problems here." - Barack Obama, June 7, 2013