March 22, 2010
Monday PM

Even after President Barack Obama signs major health-care legislation into law, the transformation of the medical insurance system is only just getting started.

Opponents of the legislation promise legal and political fights on many different battlefields, including the states, in Congress, in the courts, at the polls this fall, and in the next presidential election.

If the legal and political challenges fail to stop the legislation from taking effect, many of the changes are not scheduled to occur until 2014 and even 2020. Predicting what the health-care system (and the economy) will look like in 10 years is impossible.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican, said Monday that he will sue to block the federal government as soon as Obama signs the legislation into law.

Cuccinelli says that Virginia is the only state with a law "protecting its citizens from a government-imposed mandate to buy health insurance." Requiring people to have health insurance is key to the Obama plan.

You can bet other states are going to try to block these profound changes. Officials in Florida, South Carolina and other states are looking for ways to opt out of the new law.

Aside from the legal challenges, the political fighting will peak first in the congressional elections this year and then in the presidential election in 2012.

The health-care law is an enormous change to make without a single Republican vote in favor. Democratic Party presidents signed Social Security and Medicare into law with far bigger majorities in Congress and with at least some Republican support.

Democratic Party leaders understand that some members of Congress had to vote against the health-care legislation or be defeated in the fall. Even if they voted against it, most Democrats are going to have to defend the president's agenda, including the health-care overhaul.

Finally, there is Obama himself. Will passions have cooled by the next presidential election, or will he be rewarded or punished for the cause he championed? He starts that campaign now.

SitNews ©2010
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