Viewpoints: Toss Out The House GOP Lawsuit Against Health Law; Sanders’ Expensive Plans
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Los Angeles Times:
House Republicans' Obamacare Lawsuit Should Be Tossed Out
Just when it seemed the legal onslaught against the Affordable Care Act was over, another lawsuit against key provisions of the 2010 healthcare law has gained unexpected traction. Last week, a federal judge refused to dismiss a case brought by the House GOP majority, which alleged that the Obama administration damaged the House's constitutional prerogatives by spending money that Congress hadn't appropriated on health insurance subsidies. ... The courts have no business entertaining the House's lawsuit, which is really a political dispute gussied up to look like a constitutional fight over Congress' exclusive power to write laws and to spend money. (9/15)
Bloomberg:
How HealthCare.gov Went So, So Wrong
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspector general has issued a new report on what went wrong with the Obamacare insurance exchanges. Or rather, one thing that went wrong: how the agency mismanaged the contracts so that they experienced significant cost overruns. You can take this report as a searing indictment of the agency and its contracting personnel. I took something rather different away from reading it: 1. The architects of the law were incredibly naïve. 2. Federal contracting rules are crazy. (Megan McArdle, 9/16)
The Washington Post's Volokh Conspiracy:
'King V. Burwell' And The Triumph Of Selective Contextualism
In King v. Burwell, the Supreme Court held that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) should be read to authorize tax credits for the purchase of health insurance in exchanges established by the federal government lest the ACA’s other reforms destabilize the individual health insurance market in states served by federal exchanges. In “King v. Burwell and the Triumph of Selective Constitutionalism,” Michael Cannon and I dissect the court’s reasoning in King, highlighting the court’s abandonment of textualist principles (as others have noted) and the court’s reliance on a highly selective use of context to support its ultimate conclusion. (Jonathan H. Adler, 9/15)
Bloomberg:
Bernie Sanders Sounds Like A Republican
It's not particularly noteworthy that a presidential candidate should go to Liberty University, a conservative evangelical college, and deliver a tough critique of President Barack Obama's record. It is unusual when the critique is delivered by a Democratic candidate .... Even on health care, [Sen. Bernie] Sanders offered no credit to the Obama administration. He claimed that thousands of Americans die each year for lack of care, either because they have no insurance or have excessively high deductibles. If Obamacare had done anything to improve this situation, Sanders didn't think it worth mentioning. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 9/15)
The Washington Post:
Yes, The Price Tag For Bernie Sanders’s ‘Vision’ Is Too High
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) has been able to spend the campaign season so far promising people lots of nice-sounding things: free college for everyone, larger Social Security checks, Medicare for all, less inequality. But the Wall Street Journal just estimated the total cost of his various promises, finding that Sanders favors $18 trillion in new government spending over 10 years. At some point, all big numbers sound alike, but don’t fall into that trap. Sanders’s $18 trillion far surpasses the boundaries of the budget debates we’ve been having over the past decade. (Stephen Stromberg, 9/15)
The Washington Post's The Plum Line:
No, Bernie Sanders Is Not Going To Bankrupt America To The Tune Of $18 Trillion
And there’s another problem with that scary $18 trillion figure, which is what the [Wall Street] Journal says is the 10-year cost of Sanders’ ideas: fully $15 trillion of it comes not from an analysis of anything Sanders has proposed, but from the fact that Sanders has said he’d like to see a single-payer health insurance system, and there’s a single-payer plan in Congress that has been estimated to cost $15 trillion. Sanders hasn’t actually released any health care plan, so we have no idea what his might cost. (Paul Waldman, 9/15)
Los Angeles Times:
How Louisiana Became Ground Zero For The Attack On Planned Parenthood
No organization in the United States has come under such sustained attack in recent months as Planned Parenthood, and no place has demonstrated the fundamental dishonesty and absurdity of that attack like Louisiana. The anti-Planned Parenthood campaign mounted by Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has become the one-stop shop for everything you need to know about the politicization of women's reproductive health rights. (Michael Hiltzik, 9/15)
Los Angeles Times:
Why Adding Family Leave Could Save The GOP's Bill To Ban Abortion After 20 Weeks
A GOP-sponsored bill — the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act — which would ban abortion beyond 20 weeks except in cases of rape or when the life of the mother is at risk, has already passed in the House of Representatives. The Senate is expected to vote on it this month, perhaps timed to coincide with the arrival in the U.S. of Pope Francis. The act ought to be a shoe-in: According to a 2013 Washington Post-ABC News poll 64% of Americans support restricting abortion beyond 20 weeks. Perhaps counterintuitively, women are more likely to support it than men, and younger people more than older people. (Charles C. Camosy, 9/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Let’s Talk About The Racial Disparity In Abortions
But if we are destined for an autumn abortion row, Republicans might use the opportunity to educate voters on the fallout from Roe v. Wade and press Democrats on their commitment to President Bill Clinton’s notion that abortion should to be “safe, legal and rare.” Terminating an unwanted pregnancy has been lawful for decades and, statistically, is one of the safest surgical procedures for women in the U.S. But “rare”? Well, the U.S. abortion rate has declined somewhat steadily since the late 1980s, yet the rate for black women is nearly five times higher than the white rate and well above the national average. (Jason L. Riley, 9/15)
Los Angeles Times:
How The 'Right To Die' Bill Made It To A Vote Was Wrong, But Brown Should Sign It Anyway
State lawmakers shouldn't have subverted their own rules to allow a “right to die” bill to pass Friday during a special session on healthcare for the poor. Nevertheless, Gov. Jerry Brown should sign it, no matter what he thinks about how it reached his desk. The process stunk, as the worst kind of sausage making does. The right-to-die proposal, which would allow terminally ill patients to hasten death along if they can't endure the pain or discomfort, stalled in committee during the regular session, only to be repackaged into a new bill for the special session on healthcare. It was an obvious charade. We didn't approve of this tactic and said it would be preferable to return to the issue next year. (9/15)
Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Brown, Sign The Medical Marijuana Bills
Nearly 20 years after voters legalized medical marijuana, California lawmakers have finally passed legislation to regulate the growth and distribution of cannabis for patients' use. In the final hours of their session last week, legislators passed three bills that together establish a system to license, test and track medical marijuana from "seed to sale." Gov. Jerry Brown, who helped craft the deal, should not only sign the bills into law, but he should stay focused on ensuring their smooth, effective implementation. (9/15)