Virginia Judical

Paul Bradshaw of Falls Church, Virginia is one of the many Virginians that would benefit from the Affordable Care Act. The story of Paul Bradshaw is nothing foreign to the world of health care insurance. Paul has a disease that is very expensive to treat. He suffers from hemophilia. Paul has insurance but not enough coverage. If Paul switches insurance carriers, he would be denied due to the pre-existing condition clause. Hemophilia affects 1 in 5,000 male births. As long as he lives, he will have the disease. His disease will not disappear with treatment. However, he can still maintain an active life if he receives proper treatment. The cost of treating this disease can run over $100,000 per year. The total population of Virginia according to the US Census Bureau is 8,001,024. The male population of Virginia is 3,925,983. According to a study of male adults with hemophilia, the rate of males in Virginia with hemophilia is 200 per every 100,000 males.

This paper will discuss the mandates that the federal government imposed on states, Virginia Health Care Freedom Act and Affordable Care Act. Since March 2010, Attorney General Ken Cucinelli has been in the process of reversing the federal statute that President Barack Obama signed into action. The attorney general is viewing the mandate on a state level when it is an individual mandate.

The Affordable Care Act is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Statues and mandates are laws or acts that compel states to take action that are enacted by legislatures. Many states did not support the mandate of No Child Left Behind Act that was created by George W. Bush. As long as the federal government has been given the authority to operate on mandates for the states and localities, bucking against what the federal system is requesting is normal. When states seek to go against Federal Statutes, the Supremacy Clause is so easily forgotten about. Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution established that the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Treaties, and Federal Statutes are the law that trumps all laws of the land.

Prior to December 2010, the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act was passed. The Virginia Health Care Freedom Act was passed to protect individuals that felt they had to be forced to obtain health care. The Affordable Care Act passed by the president is an individual mandate. The attorney general felt it was necessary to sue deeming it was an unconstitutional mandate.

On December 13, 2010, it was ruled unconstitutional for the government to make American's buy health insurance. The ruling did not make the entire law invalid. Even with the ruling, it was not a road block to seek other avenues to putting it into action. Attorney Ken Cuccinelli kept his promise that the ruling would not be the last round. According to Cuccinelli's website, he was optimistic that the individual mandate will be found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Ken Cuccinelli presented to the federal appeals court on Thursday, September 8, 2011 a lawsuit against the health-care overhaul. The case was dismissed due to the overhaul in health care applies to individuals not to states. Cuccinelli and Liberty University viewed it as setting a statute for the state when the state is for the individuals that make up the state of Virginia. If the health care overhaul was viewed as requiring the state in its entirety, the supremacy cause would have