Judge Andrew P. Napolitano on Fox News Channel’s recently shared some of his thoughts on pending health care legislation’s constitutionality.
Since proponents of the existing proposals are fond of using anecdotal evidence, this anecdote from the other side was interesting.
4. Is there anything in the Constitution that empowers Congress to regulate health care or get between patients and their physicians or empower bureaucrats to tell physicians how to practice medicine? In a word, NO. Here is a kinky example. Last week, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) collapsed in his apartment in Cliffside Park, N.J., a few miles south of the George Washington Bridge. When he called an ambulance and it arrived, he directed the driver to bring him to Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. That direction is today perfectly lawful. Under all three health care proposals (the Senate, House, and presidential versions), such a direction would be unlawful; as an ambulance would be forced to take a patient to the hospital closest to the patient; in Sen. Lautenberg’s case, a small community hospital a few blocks from his apartment. Sen. Lautenberg voted for the Senate proposal that would have denied him the free choice that probably saved his life. (Emphasis mine.)
The likelihood of unintended consequences–quite apart from the unfortunately intended consequences–in the massive health care legislation on the table is immense. This is just one example.
Tags: health care 'reform'