Let me see, where to begin with this one, well first of all this legislation has several problems when it comes to the constitution. among them the 14th, 10th, and 16th Amendments when it comes to mandates. If for example, mandates are constitutional and congress has unilmited powers under the constitution to mandate that people purchase healthcare coverage therefor taking away that choice then that sets up a conflict with Roe v. Wade in the 14th Amendment. If a women under Roe and the 14th right to choose is protected then ALL forms of choice when it comes to matters of health are as a matter of constitutional doctrine protected including the choice to purchase healthcare insurance. Unless the court is willing to overturn Roe and thats not likely that is one issue. One other issues with these mandates is this, the 16th Amendment states that the Govt. has basically unlimited power to lay and collect power on INCOME!!!. As the choice itself to purchase a good or service is NOT INCOME and cannot be considered as such and only will be when the good or service is purchased it again fails.
US Tax Court Penn Mutual Case
In dealing with the scope of the taxing power the question has sometimes been framed in terms of whether something can be taxed as income under the Sixteenth Amendment. This is an inaccurate formulation [ . . . ] and has led to much loose thinking on the subject. The source of the taxing power is not the Sixteenth Amendment; it is Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution
Article 1 sec. 8
Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
excise- A tax imposed on the performance of an act, the engaging in an occupation, or the enjoyment of a privilege. A tax on the manufacture, sale, or use of goods or on the carrying on of an occupation or activity, or a tax on the transfer of property. In current usage the term has been extended to include various license fees and practically every internal revenue tax except the Income Tax (e.g., federal alcohol and tobacco excise taxes
Facts are even in Article 1, this power to tax on the actual purchase itself is constitutional, the actual mandating of making that choice does not exist in the article. So given that , then you would refer to to the 10th Amendment.
10th 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.
As Mass. and one other state do have mandates upon it's citizens rightly passed by their citizens for healthcare it becomes a state matter and a federal requirement would violate the 10th Amendment.
As you can see there are many many issue with this mandate in this healthcare bill and the CBO has as far back as 1992 said as much. The current healthcare bill advocates know that without these mandates the entire healthcare bill collapses , so it should prove an interesting fight.
