A Comprehensive Healthcare Plan Will Depend on Americas November Decision

If one reads the articles on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), its pros and cons and statistics compared to other rich nations who have government sponsored healthcare, you will find that it can be very somewhat complex, confusing, and the statistics dont always match up to each other. Nevertheless there is one plan that stands out amongst all of the others. Fareed Zakaria has presented a comprehensive look at PPACA, or what is pejoratively tagged as Obamacare: a TIME essay, Health Insurance Is For Everyone, and in a CNN special presentation that he hosted, Global Lessons: The GPS Road Map for Saving Health Care. In them he emphasizes the merits of the healthcare system in Switzerland, which he says had a system very similar to America's--private insurers, private providers--with very similar problems. I found equally interesting is Forbes contributor Avik Roy take on Zakarias CNN special presentation: Fareed Zakaria's Puzzling Take on Health Care in Britain, Taiwan, and Switzerland. Interestingly enough, he writes in an associated article, Switzerland helps us visualize the direction that American reform should take, and provides a real-world example of how such reforms could work out. On Monday, March 26th, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding PPACAs constitutionality. According to the Heritage Foundation, the Supreme Court will decide, determine, and rule on the following points: The justices will decide if the Anti-Injunction Act will prohibit states and other parties from challenging the individual mandate. The Court will determine if the individual mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. The Court will decide if the mandate, if ruled unconstitutional, can be severed from the Affordable Care Act. The Court will rule if Congress exceeded its enumerated powers under the Spending Clause and violated basic federalism principles by placing heavy regulations on states that receive Medicaid funding.

The Courts decision should come down in late June. But no matter how the Court decides, its impact on the presidential election will be significant, and potentially will be the most important decisions in American history both as a legal matter and a defense of limited government. However, their decision regarding Obamacare should be of no real relevance, for the viability of any comprehensive healthcare plan will depend, as it should, on Americas electoral decision in November. I only hope that it will survive, but if it needs to be repealed/changed we all should be content with a system modeled after that of Switzerland.