It's pretty clear to most folks who pay even a little attention to freedom, individual liberty, and other good things that an insurance mandate may run afoul of a little thing many of us miss called the Constitution.  Numerous activists have called asking about this, more have commented through the website, and all of us know that, should ObamaCare pass, there will definitely be a constitutional challenge. 

With 27 states taking legislative steps to combat the Democrats’ healthcare takeover bills and 13 state Attorney Generals joining together to question the constitutionality of some of the sweetheart deals

"It's all going to be on C-SPAN.  The American people will be watching." H/T: NewsAlert Previous post on this issue

On December 28th, the Politico web site ran a long article entitled “Wielding influence in health care fight” which lays out the influence and impact of various lobbying groups on the health care “reform” debate.  The groups, including organizations representing “Big Pharma", hospitals, health insurance companies, and the medical device companies each have described their lobbying strategy and tactics and the outcome for their group.

C-SPAN has sent a letter to Democratic leaders asking that the closed-door negotiations between the House and Senate on health care be televised.  Congressional leadership is already going around the usual reconciliation process to avoid public scrutiny and this request is an important reminder of the need for transparency.  

From the business section of the New York Times comes this profile of medical care in Richmond since 1996.Since 1996, the Richmond area has lost more than 600 of its hospital beds, mostly because of state regulations on capacity. Several hospitals have closed, and others have shrunk. In 1996, the region had 4.8 hospital beds for every 1,000 residents. Today, it has about three. Hospital care has been, in a word, rationed.

As I predicted a week ago, the Democrat’s budget-busting socialist big-picture plan to have a full government takeover of medicine, with Senator Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) bribe as the camel’s nose under the tent, is coming to light.