Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3, of the U.S. Constitution empowers Congress "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among several States, and with the Indian Tribes."
The purpose of the Commerce Clause was to eliminate the conflict between those states that had a commercial advantage as a result of their access to a major harbor, and the interior states that did not. That economic disparity was the source of many fights between individual states.
Health care currently takes up one-sixth of our economy. We are now seeing some states take action to guarantee their residents access to health care, while poorer states resist it. While health care is not limited to states that have major seaports, it is limited somewhat by wealth. Isn't it ironic that the wealthiest states -- which would have to pay higher taxes to provide health care -- are the bluest ones?
It is my assertion that health care, taking up such a large part of the U.S. economy, is too important to the unity of the country to be left to individual states. We cannot afford to have rich states with residents having guaranteed access to health care and poor ones where its residents do not.
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