1. Severability - This judge overstepped his boundaries by throwing out the baby with the bathwater, and I expect he will be reversed. This was a political decision and the proof of it was the judges' ill advised comments about the Boston Tea Party. Anyone from Florida knows that Pensacola is really an extension of Alabama, so we should not be surprised.

2. Commerce Clause - I would have preferred the public option and I do not know of any circumstance where the commerce clause was ever used to force someone into buying something like health insurance. Interestingly the Republican notion that Social Security be privatized would necssarily require the same kind of expansion of the commerce claise, the reasoning being that everyone needs a nest egg, but the investments to create them should be privatiazed. I can see both sides of the argument in the health care law. On the one hand the notion of being forced to buy a commercial product is
a stretch, but on the other hand there is no question that the minute someone seeks medical care they are a part of interstate commerce, and the need for medical care for 99% of people is inevitable. So do we wait until someone gets sick, take advantage of the no pre-existing condition and then have them buy insurance?

The real overhaul in health care is going to be in the next few years as the role of nurse practitioners grows, as well as the role of supermarkets and pharmacies giving out vaccines and antibiotics increase, we're going to see a reduction in general practioners and expensive lab testing. Here they now have traveling bussed that do all kinds of bloodwork and testing that would trigger anyone with a bad result to seek out a specialist. This is going to drive down costs.