Ron Paul: Medicare & Medicaid “Unconstitutional”

Medicare and Medicaid would eventually cease to exist, if Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul had his way, reports the International Business Times.

At a campaign event on Tuesday, Dec. 13, Paul, a representative from Texas, told attendees that the Medicare and Medicaid programs are unconstitutional.

There’s no provision in the U.S. Constitution that authorizes the federal government to provide health care, and the power to do so belongs to individual states under the 10th amendment, Paul said, according to the IB Times.

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Back in 1937, the Supreme Court ruled that the Social Security program was permissible under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which says that “Congress shall have power to lay and collect taes, duties, imposts and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.”

Through this “general welfare” clause, Medicaid and Medicare arose as “similarly permissible” in President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” legislation, reports the IB Times.

Paul countered this mindset in a previous interview.

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“Article I, Section 8 doesn’t say I can set up an insurance program for people. What part of the Constitution are you getting it from?” the article quotes him as saying.

The presidential candidate has previously stated that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security should all be slowly phased out.

Read the International Business Times article.

Editors note: This article previously failed to link to an article which quotes Ron Paul as saying he would gradually phase out Medicaire, Medicaid, and Social Security “in order to minimize the impact on people who are already receiving benefits.”

Written by Alyssa Gerace