Separation of church and state are words that are not in the Constitution but some quote the opposite. Easily clarified.

See for yourself and do yourself a favor and read The Constitution.

Show up at an E.R. for treatment.

If you cannot demonstrate ability to pay, then at some point during treatment you are fingerprinted, DNA-sampled, photographed (both head-on and profile, mug shot style) and entered into a national database of non-payers.

If this is a government mandate, then the database gets cross-checked when you interact with “the government”.

Want to get a drivers license renewed or a license plate for your car? You need to clear the non-payment first. File a tax return and get a refund? It gets re-directed to the hospital to cover the non-payment. Marriage license? Umm, not until you make arrangements to pay the hospital.

Note – I’m NOT saying “pay it all at once”, I’m saying “get on a payment plan”. This is standard finance stuff.

This doesn’t have to be done as a government mandate either, it could just be a “reform”. Healthcare industry could put this together pretty damn quick, if they wanted to (and if it weren’t illegal – not sure about that…)

Just obtain and include these details for *everybody’s* charts, call it a way to make sure that the Joe who is on the chart is the same Joe who is under the kinfe, then compare notes between themselves, and invoke *EXISTING* debt collections agencies to get their money back.

Everybody gets coverage, those who are using the E.R. to avoid paying bills end up getting a lot of problems, unless they’re living the cash-only lifestyle… and if they *are* living cash-only, then the debt collectors can still take them down, especially if they’re not paying taxes….

Mew

As the words “health insurance” aren’t to be found in the founding document, you are correct. Also, there is nothing in the Constitution authorizing the founding of the U.S. Air Force, the regulation of the communications industry, funding for space exploration or how much orange juice orange juice has to have in it before you can call it “orange juice.”

Time for a new argument, dimwits?

bschmalfeldt on August 24, 2009 at 9:32 AM

Thanks for the irrelevant list of all optional spending Congress has decided the government can pay for.

Back to the topic, where does the Constitution say Congress can require a citizen to buy anything?

But as broad as that power is, I don’t think it will give the power to force insurance companies to serve all customers. But they could make it a Civil Rights case – by legislating against discrimination based on the health status of an individual. It’d be an easy sell to the public, too. “Don’t sick people have a right to health care too?”

I wish that was sarcasm, but it’s modern reality.

Time for a new argument, dimwits?

What are you talking about this article had to do with treaties and the states.

Please make sure you add the WHOLE article 3 section 2!

…

xler8bmw on August 22, 2009 at 11:01 AM

I did read all of Article III before commenting. Note what comes before the sentence I highlighted. It’s obvious that everything in the first paragraph of section III is what is covered by the highlighted statement (that Congress has the power to limit appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court). The sentence, which is attached at the end of paragraph 2, obviously pertains to the first paragraph, because the text of paragraph 2 indicates that when a controversy rooted in paragraph 2 appears, the Supreme Court has original, not appelate, jurisdiction. It makes no sense for the Supreme Court to have both original and appellate jurisdiction over a particular type of case — they are mutually exclusive.

Please reread the entirety of Article III again, and, after considering the distinction between appellate and original jurisdiction, tell me exactly how I am misreading Article III.

From NYT …I’m loving it

Most of us could post some tragic story, I sure could. Life is not fair, most of us figure that out in kindergarten. You play the hand you’re dealt, very few of us get a perfect hand.

jodetoad on August 23, 2009 at 7:44 PM

Ding! Ding! Ding! This is exactly right. The problem is that the children of this country are being indoctrinated in public school everyday that big government can take away the unfair part of life. Unless those schools are taken back from the libs/NEA this country is doomed. They have the kids 9-10 months for 6-8 hrs a day!