How we stop Obamacare now

Editorial:  In order to stop Obamacare from coming into effect, we must defund it – now. 

As a state senator, I have spent a good portion of the past three years fighting to protect Oklahomans from the federal intrusion known as the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.  I authored the state question creating a constitutional prohibition in Oklahoma against a mandate for insurance coverage.  In addition, I worked to find other roadblocks against the imposition of a federal exchange, which would limit consumer choices and threaten private industry by expanding government administered healthcare. 

The fight continues.  As you are aware, the Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act is not a mandate but a tax, and is therefore legal.

Many do not realize that the Act itself provides for direct taxes, above and beyond the new “taxes” as classified by the Supreme Court. These taxes were included as a way to help pay for this unprecedented expansion of government.  To make matters worse, these taxes actually discourage people from buying private health insurance and target those most in need. 

Two taxes in the Affordable Care Act cause me great concern.  One is a tax on life-saving medical devices.  This is clearly an effort to ration healthcare and, in an effort to bring down overall costs, make the equipment less widely available.  The other, an $87 billion tax on insurance premiums, is even more egregious. When the stated goal of the act is to have more people covered by insurance, why in the world would you tax those already purchasing it? 

Of course, political gamesmanship has shaped how this tax is levied.  First, large self-insured companies are exempt from this tax, so the burden falls directly to small businesses and individuals.  Some families will pay an estimated $500 more per year for insurance when this tax goes into effect.  The burden on small businesses providing health coverage to their employees could result in the loss of almost 250,000 jobs.  Secondly, the law is written so that if you have an HMO instead of traditional insurance, your tax is 50 percent less than others are paying.  Making this even more interesting is the fact that the nation’s largest HMO, Kaiser Permanente, which is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area, controls much of that market. Incidentally, it is the single largest insurer in the congressional district of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

It is time for Congress to act and pass HR 1370 and SB 1880, two companion bills designed to repeal the Health Insurance Tax.  We must get rid of the health insurance tax for multiple reasons: first, the government should not pick winners and losers through tax policy; secondly, while we could debate whether or not government should encourage the purchase of private insurance, we can certainly agree it should not be discouraged by an excessive tax; and finally, we have to defund Obamacare as it is the best way to strangle a bureaucracy that is undeniably out-of-control.