2012 was a very bad year for opponents of the Obama health laws as they suffered an agonizing loss at the Supreme Court and blew an opportunity to change course on Election Day.
Nonetheless, efforts to stop or at least slow the implementation of key provisions continue. State leaders, religious officials, national Republicans and even some national Democrats could play critical roles in this effort.
Grace-Marie Turner is president of the Galen Institute, one of the leading health policy organizations in the country. She says the conditions are clearly not ideal for Obamacare opponents, but she says there are glimmers of hope on the Congressional front.
“The Speaker (John Boehner) has made it very, very clear that while it’s going to be very difficult if not impossible to repeal the law as long as President Obama is in the White House, because he’d veto it, they have a lot of power to investigate and to defund,” said Turner. “This administration needs more money to set up these federal exchanges, these marketplaces around the country because states are refusing to do it. And they need money to do that. Well, if the House doesn’t appropriate it then what’s the administration going to do?”
Turner points out that Obamacare was trumpeted as a one trillion dollar cost over 10 years. That projection has already ballooned to $2.6 trillion and the program isn’t even up and running yet. She says the administration may try to use some accounting tricks and that’s where the GOP-led House can play a key role.
“If they take it from a bucket that’s designed to be spent for something else and they spend it on that, then the House is going to need to investigate that,” said Turner.
Repeal of certain components within the Obama health laws are also possible.
“There are some parts of this law for which there is bipartisan support for repeal, including the medical device tax,” said Turner, alluding to a growing concern among Senate Democrats over the impact of that tax. “Also, this Independent Payment Advisory Board that is going to become the Medicare rationing board. There’s support on both sides of the aisle for (repeal of) that hatchet attempt and effort to cut back on health care costs.”
But given the make-up of the incoming Senate and President Obama’s re-election, is there really a chance something like the Independent Payment Advisory Board could be scrapped?
“Absolutely. A lot of Democrats, including people very much on the left end of the continuum are saying that they do not believe that a bunch of 15 un-elected, unaccountable bureaucrats should have control over literally hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare spending,” said Turner, who says a growing number of Democrats also fear the almost complete lack of legislative or judicial oversight for the panel once it’s up and running.
Turner admits such an effort at repeal would require two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate since President Obama would be sure to veto the bill.
As for the resistance movement outside of Washington, Turner says the signs are everywhere. She says many people are making the simple decision to pay the $95 fine for not purchasing health insurance instead of spending over $5,000 on a policy, businesses are also finding it much easier to drop coverage and pay the fine than provide the coverage mandated in the law and nearly half the states are refusing to set up new health care exchanges. And Turner says the vocal opposition of the Catholic Church to the contraception mandate is a key player in all of this as well.
“You’re seeing this Obamacare resistance movement starting with citizens and businesses and religious leaders and states, all saying we can’t comply with this law and we’re going to find a way around it,” said Turner.