A bill to ban the creation of a state-run health insurance exchange, a key provision needed to fully enact Obamacare, was filed in the Texas state House last week.
House Bill 2782 (HB2782) was introduced by State Rep. J.D. Sheffield (R-Gatesville) on March 10. The bill would ban the state of Texas from participating in health care exchanges. This would erect a barrier making it more difficult for Obamacare to be properly implemented in the state.
The bill states the following:
A health benefit exchange described in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Pub. L. No. 111-148), as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Pub. L. No. 111-152), may not be established in this state.
HB2782 has added relevance because the Supreme Court is hearing King vs. Burwell, which pertains to state-run health care exchanges. A decision in favor of King could invalidate the subsidy regime for states refusing exchanges, and greatly disrupt Obamacare. Regardless, it is incumbent upon the states to resist. Sacrificing health care freedom to take federal money is always a terrible decision, and the opinions of some judges does not change that one bit.
The bill creates impediments to the implementation of Obamacare and lays the foundation for further action to nullify the ACA in Texas. The large number of states refusing to set up an exchange has already created problems for the feds. For instance, the widespread problems with the Obamacare website would have likely been avoided had each state set up its own exchange as intended.
The next step after HB2782 would be a bill prohibiting any state cooperation with implementation of the ACA and then move forward with the other steps in the Tenth Amendment Center’s four-step plan to nullify Obamacare, Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano noted that such actions were not just legal, but effective.
“If enough states do this, it will gut Obamacare because the federal government doesn’t have the resources…to go into each of the states if they start refusing,” he said.
Based on the long-standing principle known as the anti-commandeering doctrine, the legislation is on strong legal grounds. In four major cases from 1842 to 2012, the Supreme Court has consistently held that the federal government cannot “commandeer” states, requiring them to enforce or expend resources to participate in federal law or regulatory programs.
If HB2782 is passed, Texas residents will be well on their way toward being protected from Obamacare. However, they won’t be fully safeguarded until our more comprehensive four-step plan is in full effect. That means that there is still much work that needs to be done to save the state’s health freedom from federal intrusion.
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For Texas: Take steps to fight Obamacare HERE.
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