Thread: Texas leads 20-state lawsuit against Obamacare

Texas leads 20-state lawsuit against Obamacare

by Emma Platoff Feb. 26, 2018 14 hours ago

Texas is suing the federal government over President Barack Obama's landmark health law — again.

In a 20-state lawsuit filed Monday in federal court, Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that after the passage of the GOP's tax plan last year — which also repealed a provision of the sweeping legislation known as "Obamacare" that required people to have health insurance — the health law is no longer constitutional.

“Texans have known all along that Obamacare is unlawful, and a divided Supreme Court’s approval rested solely on the flimsy support of Congress’ authority to tax. Congress has now kicked that flimsy support from beneath the law,” Paxton said in a statement Monday. “With no remaining legitimate basis for the law, it is time that Americans are finally free from the stranglehold of Obamacare, once and for all.”

Texas has sued the government more than 60 times since 2008, and those efforts haven’t ceased since the Obama administration gave way to that of President Donald Trump last year.

Texas did not elect to create a state exchange for health insurance, as the Affordable Care Act provided for, but the law still had important impacts on the state, Paxton said, including by increasing the amount of money Texas must pay the Internal Revenue Service through its Medicaid managed care organizations. Repealing the law would allow Congress to "replace that failed experiment with a plan that ensures Texans and all Americans have better choices for health coverage at more affordable prices," Paxton said.

Texas also sued the federal government over the health care law in 2015, challenging a fee that states were required to pay to cover the cost of the law. And that followed a 2010 suit arguing that certain facets of the law exceeded federal authority. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the law constitutional in 2012.

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02...nst-obamacare/

GO STATES!!

AG Paxton and Wisconsin AG File 20-State Lawsuit to End the Grip of Obamacare on Texas and the Nation

Monday, February 26, 2018 – Austin

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel today led a 20-state coalition lawsuit against the federal government, challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Paxton explains that when Congress enacted President Trump’s tax overhaul, it rendered all of Obamacare unconstitutional by doing away with the tax penalty in Obamacare’s individual mandate.

“Texans have known all along that Obamacare is unlawful and a divided Supreme Court’s approval rested solely on the flimsy support of Congress’ authority to tax. Congress has now kicked that flimsy support from beneath the law,” Attorney General Paxton said. “The U.S. Supreme Court already admitted that an individual mandate without a tax penalty is unconstitutional. With no remaining legitimate basis for the law, it is time that Americans are finally free from the stranglehold of Obamacare, once and for all.”

In the earlier case against Obamacare, a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court and Obama Department of Justice were clear that the tax penalty was an essential component of the law. And when it upheld Obamacare, the Supreme Court’s majority decision stated that without the tax penalty, the mandate that individuals purchase health insurance was an unconstitutional exercise of federal power. The commerce power, Chief Justice Roberts explained, gives Congress the power to regulate commerce, and not to compel commerce, as Obamacare does.

In its current unlawful form, Obamacare still imposes rising costs and transfers an enormous amount of regulatory power to the federal government. In Texas and 38 other states, where the federal government administers health exchanges, health insurance premiums rose an average of 105 percent from 2013 to 2017. Around 70 percent of U.S. counties present citizens with a noncompetitive situation, having only one or two health insurers.

“Through our multi-state lawsuit, we hope to effectively repeal Obamacare, which will then give President Trump and Congress an opportunity to replace that failed experiment with a plan that ensures Texans and all Americans have better choices for health coverage at more affordable prices,” Attorney General Paxton said.

The impact of Obamacare on Texas is substantial, even though Texas did not expand Medicaid or create a state exchange. One such impact is that Texas must pay the IRS, through its Medicaid managed care organizations, an additional $120 million per year solely due to Obamacare and its implementing regulations.

Texas and Wisconsin are joined in the lawsuit against Obamacare by Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.

View a copy of the lawsuit here: http://bit.ly/2ClKtWP