ACS’s Fredrickson Delves Into Debate Over Health Care Law, Says ‘Absolutely’ Within Congressional Power

ACS Executive Director Caroline Fredrickson and the Cato Institute’s Michael F. Cannon took to NPR’s “Tell Me More,” to debate the constitutionality of a provision of the landmark health care reform law that requires individuals, starting in 2014, to maintain health care insurance.

The call focused on some of the legal arguments aimed at scuttling the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and followed yesterday’s oral argument in one of the primary lawsuits lodged against the Act.

Citing some of the questioning from yesterday’s oral argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, NPR host Michel Martin asked Fredrickson about the opponents’ oft-repeated claim that Congress has overreached by requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance.

Fredrickson said the opponents’ argument and framing of the questions avoid the central point, which involves the breadth of the Constitution’s commerce clause.

“The commerce clause, which is the authority under which Congress passed the health care law, says nothing about activity or inactivity,” she said. “The touchstone really, as it has been under Supreme Court precedent for decades and decades -- is that does this affect interstate commerce? And when you are talking about an industry that affects 17 percent of our economy, it clearly does affect commerce; it’s clearly within the scope of the commerce clause."

Fredrickson continued, “The real issue is, does Congress have the power under the commerce clause to regulate the health care industry, one of the biggest industries of our economy.”

And “absolutely,” Congress has exercised its power in a constitutional manner, Fredrickson said.

Cannon offered the Right’s claims that Congress has taken an expansive view of the commerce clause, and that if the Affordable Care Act’s individual responsibility provision were upheld by the courts, Congress will have “virtually unlimited control over the economy.” 

Cannon, however, suggested that Congress would not have run afoul of constitutional strictures, if it had simply expanded Medicare.

Fredrickson, responded, “The ironic moment here is that Michael admits that Medicare is fully founded in the Constitution – so we can have a government-run, universal program that Congress passed, but you can’t have a privately run system that Congress can help regulate.”

The entire segment is below or available here. Also for more information on the various legal challenges to the health care law, visit ACS’s Affordable Care Act Resources page.