Virginia Judge Rules Healthcare Reform Unconstitutional

By Christopher Walker
Dec 13 2010

A federal judge in Virginia announced this morning that certain parts of the US healthcare reform bill are unconstitutional.

According to the statements, the judge declared that the mandate within the healthcare reform bill that requires all Americans to buy health insurance by 2014 does not fall under the US Constitution. As such it cannot be allowed to stand as part of the overall measure.

This has brought a lot of joy to the healthcare protestors out there that have declared the new bill useless. Under the terms of the bill, all Americans would be forced to secure some type of health insurance by 2014. Those that did not comply with the order would be forced to pay fines and penalties and have an insurance program assigned to them.

But there are some that have said that parts of the healthcare reform bill should remain. One of the main points in that discussion is the removal of lifetime benefits caps. This is a common practice by health insurance companies to avoid paying out for expensive illnesses by placing a limit on how much can be spent on each policy.

Furthermore, the removal of the preexisting conditions rules has become a major starting point for those that do not oppose the bill. At this point health insurance companies are allowed to deny coverage based on conditions that exist before the coverage is sought. The healthcare reform bill has abolished that practice to allow everyone access to healthcare.