President John Adams Signed Health Insurance Mandate-212 Years Ago

mikeambs:

peterwknox: notthatkindagay:

In July, 1798, Congress passed, and President John Adams signed into law “An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen,” authorizing the creation of a marine hospital service, and mandating privately employed sailors to purchase healthcare insurance.

This legislation also created America’s first payroll tax, as a ship’s owner was required to deduct 20 cents from each sailor’s monthly pay and forward those receipts to the service, which in turn provided injured sailors hospital care. Failure to pay or account properly was discouraged by requiring a law violating owner or ship’s captain to pay a 100 dollar fine.

This historical fact demolishes claims of “unprecedented” and “The Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty…”

Perhaps these somewhat incompetent attorneys general might wish to amend their lawsuits to conform to the 1798 precedent, and demand that the mandate and fines be linked to implementing a federal single payer healthcare insurance plan.

The other option is to name Presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison et al. in the lawsuits. However, it might be difficult to convince a judge, or the public, that those men didn’t know the limits of the Constitution.

Ouch…

Source: notthebarefootcontessa

151 Notes/ Hide

  1. telegantmess reblogged this from stfuconservatives
  2. ultrafastx reblogged this from ericmortensen
  3. modiddy reblogged this from mikehudack and added:
    well thats that
  4. sarahebu88 reblogged this from ericmortensen
  5. cloverfrommars reblogged this from ericmortensen
  6. transparentcommunity reblogged this from ericmortensen
  7. matsm reblogged this from spytap
  8. glitterbubbles reblogged this from section9
  9. ericmortensen reblogged this from spytap
  10. truejerseygirl reblogged this from think4yourself
  11. mikehudack reblogged this from spytap
  12. spytap reblogged this from mikeambs and added:
    Ouch…
  13. mikeambs reblogged this from peterwknox
  14. butupwithjoy reblogged this from soupsoup and added:
    XDDD
  15. irislackey reblogged this from predictablyawesome
  16. predictablyawesome reblogged this from jasencomstock
  17. peterwknox reblogged this from notthebarefootcontessa
  18. not2hate reblogged this from soupsoup and added:
    Oh snap.
  19. jasencomstock reblogged this from think4yourself and added:
    It would suck if this law was challenged and found unconstitutional. Holy schnikies! P.J. wrote this?
  20. section9 reblogged this from think4yourself and added:
    Ha! Madison had *no* clue what was in the constitution.
  21. think4yourself reblogged this from notthebarefootcontessa
  22. sch1stocerca reblogged this from stfuconservatives
  23. notthebarefootcontessa posted this

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