THE CRUX OF THE LEGAL BATTLE OVER HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

Silkin Management Group’s various blog sites have posted numerous articles over the past year on the new health care legislation, also referred to by many as “ObamaCare”. As Silkin Management Group clients are all health care practitioners throughout the United States, this legislation has important ramifications on them as health care providers and small business owners.

As we pointed out in a recent Silkin Management Group blog, there are several lawsuits traveling through various federal courts testing the constitutionality of the law. Two courts have issued decisions that the law is constitutional. The judges from those two courts were appointed by the previous Democratic administration. There are two more courts (in Virginia and Florida) that are close to issuing decisions as well and preliminary indications are that they may rule that parts or all of the legislation is unconstitutional. And the judges from these two courts were appointed by Republican administrations.

One of the questions that has come up from Silkin Management Group clients and non-clients alike is, what is the basis of these lawsuits. I read an article today that covered this very well and thought I’d pass it along. You can link to the article here: http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/LegalCenterObamacareDevastatesCompanies/2010/11/29/id/378289

The author points out that the argument centers around the “commerce clause” of the constitution wherein Congress has authority to regulate economic activity. As the article points out, the argument being presented in these lawsuits is that “Congress is using the commerce clause to compel individuals to engage in economic activity.” That’s very different than regulating existing activity, per the lawsuits. If you read the full article you’ll get a good understanding of this point of view.

We’ll keep a close eye on the outcome of these suits and post information on it in future Silkin Management Group blogs. At least one of the undecided cases is suppose to be decided before the end of the year.

For more information about Silkin Management Group, feel free to contact us at 800-695-0257 or email info@silkinmanagementgroup.com

Eric Korb
Silkin Management Group Consultant