25. The Tenth Amendment

Obamacare is not the first time some form of socialized medicine has been tried
in the United States. The Constitution grants certain powers to the Federal
government. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution says that any powers not
specifically granted to the Federal government by the Constitution are granted to
the states and people. Some states have already tried versions of government-
controlled healthcare:

In 1974 Hawaii started the Individual Mandate Plan
In 1993 there was the Washington State Health Plan
In 1994 there was the Oregon Health Plan and TennCare in Tennessee
In 2005 Maine started the Dirigo Health Plan
In 2006 Massachusetts started the Connector Plan and Commonwealth Care, also
known as Romneycare

All of these plans included many of the same elements as Obamacare: individuals
and employer mandates requiring the purchase of insurance; price controls on
payments to doctors and providers; government controls on insurance premiums;
long lists of services that each insurance policy must cover; decreased flexibility
in choices to the patients; guarantee issue of insurance regardless of pre-existing
conditions; and expansion of Medicaid enrollment to covered the uninsured. The
results for each of these programs was similar: healthcare costs skyrocketed;
taxes increased; insurance carriers left the state; patients had more difficulty
finding doctors and providers to take care of them due to low reimbursement;
in many cases, the number of uninsured actually increased. Some states were
nearly bankrupted.

The biggest problem is trying to get rid of these programs once they’re in place.
Can you imagine what will happen when an entire country experiences these
same problems because of government controlled healthcare?

Control of Healthcare was not among the powers granted to the federal
government. Technically, the argument could be made that Medicare is
Unconstitutional. Let’s face it…Government controlled healthcare doesn’t work.
It robs us of our choices and our money. Plus…It’s not their job.

(Note: This commentary is by Dr. Jill Vecchio.)