I have it on good authority that June will bring good tidings.
June is, of course, the anticipated month when the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will rule in the landmark case HHS v. Florida regarding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare. The following conclusions summarize three days of oral arguments before the nine Supreme Court justices on March 26, 27 and 28, 2012. In summing up the three days, constitutional law experts say:
- Kansas Attorney General, Derek Schmidt, said, “I feel better the states are going to prevail today than I did when arguments began.”
- Carrie Severino, a former Supreme Court Clerk to Clarence Thomas, concluded: “[I]t’s a good week for defenders of the Constitution at the Supreme Court. After Tuesday’s arguments, there is hope that the individual mandate would be declared unconstitutional.”
- Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute said, “I’m coming out of this week feeling very good” and that “[t]he Court will easily get past the [Anti Injunction Act], probably strike down the individual mandate, more likely than not taking with it all or most of the rest of the law (including the Medicaid expansion),” though “trying to predict the Supreme Court isn’t a science—but I’m coming out of this week feeling very good.”
- Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the first to file suit challenging the law, said, “[i]f you had to lay odds now, I think the most likely outcome in this case … is that they will take it up, the individual mandate, I think, will be held unconstitutional—I’m still cautiously optimistic about that—and I think they may rip the whole law out.”
But whether or not June brings an end to the federal health care act, what is our “Plan B” to continue with health care reform efforts? Americans know we cannot continue to operate our health care system as we do currently.
In our latest Liberty Brief, Wyoming Liberty Group has developed a “Plan B.” It is a Five Step Plan that addresses all of the essential problems with health care (government involvement, employer mingling, public funding, over-regulation and a misunderstanding of the economics of health care) in one sequential process. The sequence clarifies the relationship between each step, distinguishes between free-market and essential government functions and identifies state and federal steps needed to set the process in motion.
We can correct mistakes made when we entangled health insurance with employment, and health care with entitlements. Americans will be put back in control of their health care decisions as we free ourselves from federal overreach that has left us with poor outcomes, limited health care options and states in fiscal crises due to dependency on federal funds.
We do not need a federal law for health care reform. We can do it one state at a time.
Click here to download the brief.
Click here for an executive summary.
