Insurance companies very worried about delay of the individual mandate...

Without the individual mandate, the whole house of cards collapses. To be honest, it's hard to feel sorry for insurance companies. They supported Obamacare. Having said that, it would be a disaster if the individual market collapsed.

Via The National Journal:

That tone is changing, though, in the wake of HealthCare.gov’s woes. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is working on a bipartisan bill to delay the individual mandate for a year, a move that has set off alarms inside the industry. “The individual mandate is inextricably linked to the insurance-market reforms included in the health care reform law,” said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s leading trade organization.
The health care law essentially strikes a deal with insurance companies: They are required to cover people with preexisting conditions, and they can’t charge people more based on those conditions. Both of those policies will cost insurers money—potentially, a lot of it. So the law also includes three tools to minimize their financial risks: the individual mandate; subsidies to help people afford insurance; and a defined window to buy coverage.

If lawmakers start fiddling with those incentives, the equation gets worse for insurers. There are minor changes that the industry could probably weather, maybe easily. But just the idea of weakening those safeguards is enough to make insurers nervous. A handful of states tried in the 1990s to enforce guaranteed coverage, but without the safeguards that Obamacare includes for insurers. Premiums in those states skyrocketed, growing by double digits each year until they were so expensive that the reforms ended up increasing the number of uninsured people.
Democrats protective of the Affordable Care Act have held the line so far on changes to its important provisions. The individual mandate might not be politically popular, but Obamacare won’t work without it, so the party was stuck with it. That put Democrats and insurers on the same team.

Interesting: Jay Carney hedged Monday on whether ObamaCare’s individual mandate could be delayed

After shutting down the government to prevent House Republicans from delaying the individual mandate, if Obama does it unilaterally, he should be impeached.

Via The Hill:

White House press secretary Jay Carney hedged Monday on whether ObamaCare’s individual mandate could be delayed because of problems with the healthcare law’s enrollment web site.
Carney did not directly say the individual mandate could be delayed, but he did say that if people could not get access to ObamaCare, they would not be penalized.
Under the healthcare law, uninsured Americans are required to sign up for health insurance. If they don’t, they could be hit with a fine.
Carney was asked Monday if people would have to pay a fine if they couldn’t enroll in ObamaCare because of a glitchy website that the administration has struggled to fix.
Carney said that those “without access to affordable care due to a state not expanding Medicaid or other factors” would not be penalized. A number of states have decided against accepting federal money to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare.
Carney then dodged a question about whether the website could be one of those factors.

Flashback to 2008: Barack Obama explains why the individual mandate is wrong

Apparently, Obama was lying through his teeth. 

Obamacare Mandate Stands: We are now subjects of the federal government

Chief Justice Roberts joins the 4 liberal members of the court and rules the Obamacare mandate to purchase insurance can stay, but is is really a tax, not a penalty. The rest of the law was upheld with some minor objections to the state medicaid provision. We are no longer citizens of this once great country. We are now it's subjects. If the federal government can force you to buy a private product, they can do anything. Our Constitution is now a worthless historical artifact in a museum. We have been betrayed by the Supreme Court. Is treason too strong a word?

Via FOX News:

The Supreme Court has upheld the centerpiece of President Obama's health care overhaul, in effect allowing the law to survive. 

In a 5-4 decision unveiled Thursday, the court ruled as constitutional the so-called individual mandate requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance starting in 2014.
The ruling is a victory for the president, ensuring for now that his signature domestic policy achievement remains intact. 

It also ensures that the law will play a prominent role in the general election campaign, as Republican candidate Mitt Romney vows to repeal the law if elected.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed during a Republican administration, joined the four left-leaning justices on the bench in making the decision. 

Howard Dean Hopes Individual Mandate Gets Thrown Out: “It was a foolish thing to do anyway,"

Let's hope the whole monstrosity gets thrown out!

WASHINGTON — Howard Dean shares something with conservative politicians: He, too, is hoping that the Supreme Court throws out the individual mandate.

“I don’t give a damn about the individual mandate,” the former Vermont governor told progressive activists during a panel discussion at Tuesday’s Take Back the American Dream conference in Washington, D.C. “It was a foolish thing to do anyway, and I hope it does get thrown out.” Dean’s remarks followed an audience member’s criticism of the Affordable Care Act for not being a single-payer system.

The Supreme Court will rule this month on the constitutionality of the individual mandate requiring people to purchase health insurance.

Dean, a physician, does support the legislation as a whole, however. “I don’t want to rest of the bill thrown out,” he said, adding, “We didn’t get what we wanted, but there are some things we can build on.”

Poll Shocker: 38% of Democrats want the Obamacare mandate struck down

Putting the mandate in Obamacare was a horrible political mistake.  It may cost Obama re-election. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will strike down the mandate and the rest of the law. The American people have already made up their minds by a 2-1 ratio. 67% want the law struck down in part or whole.

Via IBD’s Capital Hill:

A key talking point of Democrats and liberal pundits regarding the Supreme Court’s ObamaCare case is that if the justices overturn the law — or even just the individual mandate portion — it will damage the “legitimacy” of the court. President Obama himself said that it would be an “unprecedented” action to overturn a law that was “passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.” The implication being that the court would face a popular backlash if it voted to overturn.

Several commentators have already pointed out that Obama was wrong on constitutional history. The Supreme Court can and regularly has overturned laws passed by Congress going back to Marbury v. Madison in 1803. Others have noted that the House’s 219-212 vote on the law hardly counts as a “strong majority.”

And polls continue to show it has little popular support either. For example, a poll just conducted for IBD by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence found that only 22% said they wanted the justices to uphold the entire law, while 37% said strike down the whole thing and 30% said to strike down only the law’s individual mandate to buy health insurance. Another 10% were unsure.

Strikingly, the same poll found that while 39% of Democrats wanted the law upheld, 38% wanted the mandate struck down and another 12% wanted the whole thing thrown out. In other words, 50% want part or all of the law tossed. Even taking into account that some of those may be liberals who dislike ObamaCare because it isn’t more expansive, it’s a striking rejection of the president’s main accomplishment by his own party.
Keep on reading…

Clueless: Individual Health Insurance Mandate 'Should Not Be Controversial'

 President Obama blames the individual mandate necessity on the requirement insurance companies take everybody. Of course, Obama and democrats are meddling in the free market system and  forcing insurance companies to take everyone.  Obama doesn't think forcing people to buy a private product is controversial. Of course, he doesn't think shredding the Constitution is controversial either.

Flashback to 2006: Tim Pawlenty Praises the Individual Mandate (video)

Perhaps we should call Obamacare Obamalentycare. If enough GOP primary voters listen to this audio/video, Pawlenty's campaign is toast.