from my blog at http://theatleeappeal.com

Well everyone knows by now, a federal judge in Florida ruled the entire piece of  Obamacare “void” because of the individual mandate. The basis, although not said verbatim in this ruling, was basically if the government can force its citizens to purchase health care as a means of citizenship, what can’t they force the citizens to buy? Also, don’t ignore the fact that over half of the states were signed on to this appeal. The other verdicts regarding Obamacare did not have every state who has filed an appeal attached to it. It is for that reason why this ruling is so significant.

Liberals aren’t going down without a fight. In fact, liberals are hanging on to every word from an op-ed out of Forbes back on January 17th. The title was ‘Congress Passes Socialized Medicine and Mandates Health Insurance – In 1798.’ Before I give my rebuttal, I want to first say that this truly was a very interesting article. I, along with probably about 98% of Americans, had no clue that health insurance was even around  in the 18th century. American history is always full of surprises. But, here’s the main problem with the headline – this wasn’t socialized medicine. Only a very small portion of Americans were forced to purchase the insurance, and they were not being subsidized. The reason why Obamacare is much more of socialized medicine is because it requires EVERYONE to purchase insurance – so that the younger, healthier crowd can help subsidize the extra costs of the older or less healthy crowd – at least in theory.

In July of 1798, Congress passed – and President John Adams signed -“An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen.” The law authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed sailors be required to purchase health care insurance.

America was a very young country, and was still in need of goods – many of which came from overseas. Back then, overseas travel was extremely dangerous because it would take a very long time to cross the Atlantic and leave sailors more exposed to possible bad weather and rough seas. America’s Navy was still in its baby years, so America had to rely on private ships to bring the goods home. “Realizing that a healthy maritime workforce was essential to the ability of our private merchant ships to engage in foreign trade, Congress and the President resolved to do something about it.”

Now, the last sentence in the paragraph above is what Rick Ugnar of Forbes used as the reason for Adams signing the aforementioned act into law. Fair enough point. But what is the basis for forcing EVERY person to purchase insurance? Congress only forced one small segment of people to be medically covered because America was still relying heavily on imports as a means to keep the economy moving. There simply wasn’t much else of a choice. Forcing every person to have insurance for simply being alive is a complete 180 from what the bill of 1798 had in mind. Liberals will be coming from every direction with the Act of 1798 as proof Obamacare is constitutional. However, when you read that bill, you will find that it has absolutely nothing in common with Obamacare.