In what might be the most under reported high profile endorsement in the history of health reform, Obama is endorsing the legislation originally proposed by Sens. Ron Wyden and Scott Brown which “would give states” the freedom to opt out of the legislation, though not “entirely,” by 2014. The “entirely” refers to the fact that guaranteed issue referendum would stay as and so would outlawing plan recissions. The reason?
As we get closer to a Supreme Court hearing, this move is construed by most legal experts to be a way of making the bill “Constitutional.” Almost every single Republican attorney general has filed claims to invalidate the new health care reform law based on being unconstitutional. So I guess a good question would be, does this opt out provision make it constitutional? Maybe, is the answer, and already Republicans are playing the fact that Obama realizes that this bill is a so called “job killer” and the fact that the law is being battered by courts and congressional Republicans.
John Boehner’s spokesman described the president’s announcement as an admission of the reform law’s flaws.” And everyone’s favirote spokesman Michael Steel went even further, “The administration has conceded that ObamaCare is unworkable.” Larry Kudlow, on CNBC’s The Kudlow Report (2/28), similarly suggested that the President was “finally admitting he made a mistake.”
Still the Obama administration is trying to get clarification on the court’s ruling striking down ObamaCare. In a memo to Vinson, the Justice Department wrote, “Clarification is appropriate so that defendants know how to proceed in this litigation and in implementing the Act, and to dispel the confusion of the public and many plaintiff states regarding their rights and obligations going forward.” Meanwhile, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) “asked Vinson if she could weigh in on the suit, arguing that the state’s attorney general (who is party to the suit) shouldn’t stop the state from getting the benefits of the reform law.”
In other bad news for health reform…
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, John E. Calfee criticizes the healthcare law,pointing out that every single benefit from health reform has failed in Massachusetts, most importantly costs have continued to rise at pre-reform levels. And more that it lacks any real means of keeping costs from increasing. To prove his point, Calfee refers to Massachusetts’ health reform which was used as a template for the law, and notes that since Massachusetts’ health reform was implemented in 2006, costs have not decreased, as anticipated. Rather, they have gone up, and emergency room visits have continued to increase as well, despite the fact that almost all residents now have health coverage. Meanwhile, premiums have also risen each year. According to Calfee, all of this bodes ill for national health reform.
