The first blow was dealt to Obamacare in December, and I couldn’t be happier. On Dec. 17, Virginia federal judge Henry Hudson declared the individual mandate included within Obamacare was unconstitutional – something many of us knew all along.

Although we’re still a ways away from repeal, which likely won’t happen until the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the issue, the great news out of Virginia gives us hope.

Obamacare’s individual mandate requires most Americans to purchase government-approved health insurance beginning in 2014. This is an obscene abuse of our constitutional rights.

As a free citizen, my government should not be permitted to require me to purchase anything, especially something as personal as health care coverage.

That is a decision that should be made by me, my family and my doctor — the federal government should have nothing to do with it.

I hope, and truly believe, that the courts will arrive at the same conclusion.

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The Supreme Court and all federal courts are a necessary check and balance to a government that has infringed upon our rights.

This federal government sure does need a “check and balance” when it comes to Obamacare, and I hope the courts are ready to act.

Tom Elliman

Portland 

I take issue with the state of Maine joining the anti-health care reform court suit because it is a step backward. This health care law is not universal health care.

It will make health care insurance coverage more plentifully available through the free-market enterprise of insurance exchanges and federal subsidies for the very poor.

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I campaigned hard and donated out of my own working-class pocket to push through health care reform because I believe the access to health care is a basic necessity. I also believe that the only way insurance companies can act fairly is that everyone plays.

And I can’t help but think that the “being forced to participate” is what’s causing the fuss. When are we all going to get over it and get on with it!

It’s a slap in the face to the millions of Americans who have worked on this issue. I cannot abide this decision by our state government.

Eliza Richmond

Scarborough 

I applaud U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson, the Virginia jurist who struck down the individual mandate of Obamacare.

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Forcing American citizens to purchase health care is not only unconstitutional, but an attack on the American way of life. Our Congress and president should be protecting our rights, not destroying them with tyrannical laws.

With this victory, I support Maine’s new attorney general joining the more than half of all the states that are fighting Obamacare. We now know with this decision, we are one step closer to repealing this law.

As Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli said, this isn’t about health insurance, health care, or even politics; this is about our essential liberty as Americans.

Ellwood Sunnell

Gorham 

Families in America are struggling now more than ever in this economic climate. So many are unemployed and even more are underemployed.

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It is hard to imagine the impact the “individual mandate” will have on families who are just making ends meet now.

Families have to make difficult choices in tough times and it is not the business of the government to mandate what a family must afford.

Forcing someone to buy something as expensive as health insurance ignores the difficult choices that a family has to make.

It is hoped, before 2014, when this mandate of Obamacare is scheduled to kick in, we will see it overturned in the courts.

The federal government has no business telling families they must purchase health coverage.

I support health care choice for families and I also support the lawsuit against Obamacare.

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It is hoped more states will join than the current 27, and this blatant overreach by the federal government will be overturned.

Virginia Kurtz

Cape Elizabeth 

Attorney General William Schneider’s action to have Maine join the suit against the Affordable Health Care Act is lamentable.

While there is much to question in the act, many Americans see the act as a first step in overhauling our out-of-control health care system.

Additionally, lawmakers in Congress seeking to rescind the act while President Obama wields the veto pen makes it most unlikely that a repeal will succeed and represents a colossal waste of resources and effort.

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When the proposal was first debated, Republicans sat on their hands and refused to engage the public and the Democrats in Congress in meaningful discussions that would have advanced the reforms that our health care system so desperately needs.

The people of this country need affordable health care, and to effect that goal, we must have a conversation that addresses all the difficult issues that swirl around health care.

The Affordable Health Care Act is a beginning that can be a vehicle for developing a health system that is coherent and efficient.

Rather than seeking to score political points with the right, Mr. Schneider would do well to ask that the state muster its resources to help successfully implement equitable health care reform for all citizens.

Lastly, isn’t it ironic that Mr. Schneider, who has enjoyed excellent health care benefits paid through the years by the taxpayers of this state and country, now seeks to negate reform that would benefit others not fortunate enough to have government subsidized health care?

Peter Mayo

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Bowdoinham 

While the state of Maine requires that residents buy private insurance for motor vehicles, it is trying to participate in a lawsuit that claims it is unconstitutional for the government to require people to buy health insurance. Gov. LePage needs to get his act together!

He cannot have it both ways. It is clear that this is an attempt to force the taxpayers of this state to subsidize promoting a Republican agenda.

If anything is unconstitutional here, it is using government tax money to promote a certain party’s agenda.

These are the same Republicans who were shouting that “the courts can’t be used to legislate” just last year.

Dana Edgecomb

Standish

 

 


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