Consumer Law

The Health Care Debate: Yes, Congress Can Make You Buy Vegetables!

By Brian Wolfman

Some folks claiming that Congress's passage of the health insurance mandate in the Affordable Care Act exceeded Congress's Commerce Clause powers have argued that if Congress can make you buy insurance (or pay a tax or fine) as part of health care reform, it can also make you buy veggies (or pay a tax or fine) as part of national nutritional reform.

So what, says former Reagan Administration Solicitor General Charles Fried. Fried thinks that it's complete nonsense that Congress lacked authority to pass the insurance mandate, and he's got a view on forced vegetable puchases as well. Testifying before Congress on Wednesday, Fried said:

As for the veggies, I suppose ... forced feeding would indeed be an invasion of personal liberty, but making you pay for them would not, just as making you pay for a gym membership which you can afford but do not use would not.

Fried pointed to 1905 case, Jacobson v. Massachusetts, where the Supreme Court upheld a Massachusetts law requiring citizens to get a smallpox vaccine or pay a $5 fine. Watch Fried's testimony here:

Fried's full written testimony is here.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on February 04, 2011 (boomark / email).