Obamacare suffered another major defeat last week when the federal circuit court ruled in favor of the House of Representatives in their suit challenging the Obama administration.
The House has challenged the administration for issuing payments to insurance providers for cost-sharing reductions for certain policyholders. Congress has explicitly refused to appropriate the funds for these payments – meaning the Obama administration has effectively sidestepped the legal authority of Congress.
The federal circuit court sided with the House, and found that this unauthorized spending by the Obama administration is in fact illegal. However, it’s all but certain that the administration will file an appeal with the circuit court of appeals.
And while this may not signal the end of this unsuccessful policy, it is more proof of one undeniable fact: the version of Obamacare that was pushed through Congress has never been implemented.
As passed by Congress, Obamacare said that individuals would were forced to pay a “penalty” for failing to purchase individual health insurance. However, that type of a provision invalidated Obamacare, and didn’t pass constitutional muster.
The U.S. Supreme Court had to effectively rewrite the law, and clarify that the penalty was actually a tax. Without this dramatic rewrite, Obamacare would have been practically null and void.
Obamacare also never allowed the federal government to provide premium subsidies to individuals who purchased health insurance plans through the 34 states which chose not to establish their own marketplace. The law explicitly states that individuals who purchase insurance through the federal marketplace are not eligible for subsidies.
It took another absurd opinion from the Supreme Court to allow this unlawful practice to continue, and to save this policy from completely imploding.
And as shown by this latest case, Obamacare was never intended to be a blank check for the Executive Branch. Congress is given the legal authority to appropriate funds, and has the ability and obligation to approve spending. The Obama administration has ignored the checks and balances our founding fathers established, and have implemented Obamacare as they see fit.
If Obamacare, or this version of Obamacare, is allowed to continue to remain in place, we are setting a very dangerous precedent for the federal government. Not only is this a monumental expansion of federal power, but it’s an example of the federal government essentially passing a law, and then enforcing something else. The Obama administration has circumvented the mechanisms that were designed to protect citizens from bad policy, and has illegally advanced its own ideological agenda.
This unlawful action is a serious threat to our American system of government – and our way of life. It must be stopped.