You can best bet that when members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were grilling Elena Kagan earlier this week over the Commerce Clause — that part of the U.S. Constitution from which Congress derives much of its legislative power — the conversation wasn’t purely academic. No, it was about the health care law. You know, the big one passed in March and immediately challenged in court.

On Thursday, a judge in Richmond, Va., heard arguments over the law. Virginia represents one of 21 states that are seeking to nullify the law by challenging the requirement that most Americans obtain insurance. Click here for the NYT story.

via Blast Off! Health-Care Challenge Gets Airing in Virginia – Law Blog – WSJ.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on June 23 released a report entitled ObamaCare: Three Months of Broken Promises. The 41-page document (PDF) serves simultaneously as an exposé of the lies Democrats told to get ObamaCare passed and as an advertisement for the Republican alternative.

via House Republicans Detail ObamaCare’s Broken Promises.

The Democrats made a strategic choice to pass health reform even though they knew it did not have majority support. They assumed passage would generate a positive initial response from the media—which it did. They also hoped that, with time, voters would see reform in a more favorable light, and that health care would not pose an issue in the midterm elections. Were the Democrats right? If our polling is correct, they were not.

In January, we asked voters in 11 states that could have competitive Senate races in November—Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio and Pennsylvania—how they felt about health reform and how they were likely to vote. The polls were conducted by YouGov using a panel of Internet users selected to represent registered voters in each state. We found widespread opposition to reform—and to the Democratic senators who voted in favor of it.

via ObamaCare and the Independent Vote – WSJ.com.

ObamaCare appears to have one grandfathered standard for labor unions and another standard for everyone else.

Unions that had a health plan under a collective bargaining agreement by March 23, 2010, can switch insurers as long as the collective bargaining deal is in effect and not forfeit the grandfathered exemptions from many ObamaCare provisions. But anyone else — large business, small business, individual — who switches carriers loses their grandfathered status.

http://blogs.investors.com/capitalhill/index.php/home/35-politicsinvesting/1834-obamacare-unions-get-better-grandfathers.

Over and over in the health care debate, President Barack Obama said people who like their current coverage would be able to keep it.

But an early draft of an administration regulation estimates that many employers will be forced to make changes to their health plans under the new law. In just three years, a majority of workers – 51 percent – will be in plans subject to new federal requirements, according to midrange projections in the draft.

via CNSNews.com – Health Overhaul to Force Changes in Employer Plans.

A Virginia-based insurance company says “considerable uncertainties” created by the Democrats’ health care overhaul will force it to close its doors by the end of the year.

The firm, nHealth, appears to be the first to claim that the new law has driven it out of business. “We don’t know what the rules are going to be, and, as a start-up, our investors need certainty,” nHealth CEO and President Paul Kitchen told POLITICO. “The law created so much uncertainty that is beyond our control.”

via First victim of health care overhaul? – Sarah Kliff – POLITICO.com.

Much of the focus on Obamacare has rightly been on its fiscal recklessness. But in a New York Times story —the type of story the Times couldn’t seem to find space for prior to Obamacare’s passage — we see a clear glimpse of the kind of care that Obamacare would likely spawn.

With the nomination brewing of Dr. Donald Berwick — a gushing admirer of the British National Health Service — to head Medicare and Medicaid and with Americans already clamoring for repeal in ever-greater numbers, the story, although tardy, is an important one. It highlights the very real dangers of having millions of the decisions made by doctors and patients across America replaced by the decisions of government administrators in Washington — who rely on studies they don’t understand and pick studies to rely on that aren’t worth understanding.

via Realizing the True Cost of Obamacare | The Weekly Standard.

How much will the new health care law cost? That was a matter of particular dispute during the debate of the Patient Protection and Affordability Act. The bill’s authors monkeyed around with the numbers, delaying some benefits, creating new revenue raisers, and pushing off known, needed reforms, so that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) could come up with a score below the $900 billion target.

Townhall

President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs Medicare, is a strong supporter of the government-run health care system in Britain, who said in a 2009 interview about Comparative Effectiveness Research: “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care–the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”

CNS

No class of American professionals will be more negatively impacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act than physicians. Third-party payment arrangements already compromise the independence and integrity of the medical profession; Obamacare will reinforce the worst of these features.

Specifically, physicians will be subject to more government regulation and oversight, and will be increasingly dependent on unreliable government reimbursement for medical services. Doctors, already under tremendous pressure, will only see their jobs become more difficult.

via Obamacare: Impact on Doctors of Health Care Reform | The Heritage Foundation.