Best Plain English Explanation of SOCTUS’ Ruling on ACA

In Plain English: The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn’t comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding.

via Amy Howe, http://www.scotusblog.com/cover-it-live/.

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California SB 223

Senate Bill 223, passed and signed by the Governor last month prohibits property appraisers from colluding to artificially raise prices of their appraisals in order to raise their compenstation. In other words, they can’t base their fees on the prices at which they appraise a propery at. Can you believe this wasn’t illegal already? Crazy. From the text of the bill:

No person with an interest in a real estate transaction involving an appraisal shall improperly influence or attempt to improperly influence, through coercion, extortion, or bribery, the development, reporting, result, or review of a real estate appraisal sought in connection with a mortgage loan.

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