I am so happy that I live in Norway and not in the United States.

Me too

Interestingly enough, it meant different things to different people even then. It actually meant different things to the people that included it in the Constitution. In the writings of some of the founding fathers, they go so far as to mention this phrase. Some of them felt that it essentially further restricted the specifically listed powers of Congress to ensure that they only did them in ways that promote the general welfare. Others believed that they included it to ensure that Congress could act on things that were not specifically listed among the powers of Congress in order to deal with issues they did not think to include at the time.

TL;DR: People have been arguing this since before it was written into the Constitution.

Whats it worth to you?

They did ensure that Congress could deal with issues they did not think to include at the time. It is called the amendment process. If government wants to be able to force an individual to purchase a product like healthcare, why can't they just make an amendment, granting them that specific power?

Why bother with going through a massive process to do a Constitutional amendment if you feel that what you are doing already falls within he acceptable parameters of the Constitution?

Psshhh who pays for health care anyways? Keep letting the state pay for mine =)

On a serious note, Australia's health care is just as crappy as the next. I have a person on my team who has a daughter who has a rare disease, and the government refuses to pay for hardly any of it. He has to spend countless hours on his hands and knees trying to earn extra money just to pay back the loans they have had to take out to get her the special food and other items she needs.

Do not ever tell me Australia's health care is of any decent quality. If the same thing was to happen to say my daughter here in the US, I would pay almost nothing to get all of the same stuff and she would have had all the surgeries instantly(I just happen to be fortunate that my parents think healthcare is important), versus the countless weeks this man has had to wait for his daughter in Australia.

Get out of here with that crap.

so one example is all anyone needs to prove something is bad?