Obama Administration Seeks to nullify States Rights
Obama Administration Seeks To Nullify The Nullifiers


Posted on March 28, 2013 by Philip Hodges

The federal government doesn’t like being told, “No.” If states try to nullify some unconstitutional federal mandate like Obamacare, the feds will first ignore them and try to force the mandate onto the state as planned, hoping that the state will just give up and comply. After all, the states are no match for the mighty feds, and as we all know, might makes right, so the states just need to stop their griping and complaining and fall in line like sheep to the slaughter to bow down to their federal overlords.


This is what the Obama administration hopes to get out of Oklahoma. As we posted recently, the Oklahoma House had passed a law that prohibited the Obamacare mandate from being implemented in the state of Oklahoma. It hasn’t been signed by the Governor, but if it is, the Obama administration will ignore it and continue to enforce their “one-size-fits-all” healthcare plan on every state including Oklahoma.


Oklahoma’s Insurance Commissioner John Doak has already gotten notification from the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO), a division of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS), stating that the federal government will proceed to take over the insurance industry in Oklahoma as planned, regardless of any state laws that contest it.





However, in a press release, Insurance Commissioner Doak stated that he won’t be giving up just yet:


“Oklahoma Insurance Department will not be participating in a collaborative effort with the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) to enforce the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Oklahoma Insurance Department regulates the health insurance policies sold in the state and responds to consumer questions and complaints. Our consumer assistance team receives over 30,000 phone calls, and our website receives over 1,000,000 visits each year. We will continue to serve these consumers by adhering to our duties under the State Constitution and Statutes. The consumers are the ones who are going to bear the costs of these unnecessary federal regulatory burdens. In addition to adding new fees to health insurance products that will increase prices both inside and outside the exchange, the ACA requires plans to add expensive and often unnecessary coverage benefits. These costs will impact young adults most severely due to the law’s requirement that older Americans pay no more than three times the premium of young adults. A survey of insurers by the American Action Forum found that average premiums for young, healthy adults may triple going into 2014.”


He’s not saying that the Affordable Care Act will make health care unaffordable just because he doesn’t like the Obama administration. Even the Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted that insurance premiums are going to have to go up under Obama’s mandate, but that it’s OK because people are “really going to see much better benefit for the money that they’re spending.”


I hope Oklahoma doesn’t back down. I just wish they had left those provisions in their nullification bill that would have required jailing any federal agents that attempted to enforce Obamacare on Oklahoma.