Healthcare Setback?

If you haven't heard, Obama's healthcare reform law has been appealed to the Supreme Court:

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to back the centerpiece of Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare overhaul -- the requirement that all Americans have health insurance.

The appeal was largely expected as a high court ruling against the law could be a fatal blow to the president's signature domestic policy achievement and could have major implications for his re-election bid.

The case is important because healthcare reform has been on of the corner stones of Obama's presidency. Additionally, the ruling will come down only a few months before what should be a heated reelection campaign for the President. Obama supporters are confident:

“We believe that a prompt resolution of the constitutionality and severability of the individual mandate is in the best interest of individuals, employers, states, and the federal government. We are confident in the merits of our legal arguments, and we look forward to presenting them to the Supreme Court.”

What may be more concerning than the constitutionality of the law at this moment, is the rising costs of healthcare:

Even a slow economy can't stop healthcare costs from rising. A new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust shows that the cost of employer-provided insurance rose 9% this year — even as workers and their families were cutting back on trips to the doctor's office — and has more than doubled over the last decade.

Costs are growing out of control since Obamacare was passed:

The report was based on interviews with more than 2,000 employers between January and May. Researchers found that premiums rose three times faster from 2010 to 2011 than they had the previous year, pushing the average cost of policies for single workers to $5,429 and for families to $15,073.

The Republicans are having a field day:

“As this survey shows, the president’s promise that his partisan health law would lower costs was just empty rhetoric,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the top Republican on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement. “The fact is employers aren’t hiring, in large part, because they have to spend more and more money on health insurance.”

And Paul Ryan is always lurking with a fiscally responsible plan:

“Giving patients and consumers control over healthcare resources would make all Americans less dependent on big business and big government for our health security; give us more control over the care we get; and force health care providers to compete for our business,” Ryan said.

Until there is a ruling on this, healthcare will continue to be a hotly contested issue. In addition, all the Republican presidential candidates have said that if they are elected, they will repeal the law. The shelf law for Obamacare might not be that long anyway.

On a more concerning note, at the moment, it appears that healthcare reform may not reduce the cost of healthcare, thus making the law expensive. This will make it anti-jobs because company growth will be restrained by these costs. Furthermore, with our national debt crisis, it is important that the legislation we pass has a positive effect on our economy. I'm not convinced that this is the right move for that.