ObamaCare for the States? Hopefully Not!

This past week, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in three cases dealing with the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly known as ObamaCare.  While there is much speculation on what the Court will do with PPACA, it is clear from the oral arguments that a majority of justices are leaning toward, at minimum, striking down the infamous individual mandate to purchase health insurance, on which most other major facets of the law stand.  The Court’s actions on this case will have sweeping impacts on both federal government programs and state governments. 

When Congress enacted PPACA (I would argue unconstitutionally) it foisted on states, rather than the federal government, the responsibility to implement expansions of Medicaid, dramatic changes to insurance regulations and the duty to create insurance exchanges – all major functions of the law.  Under the threat of loss of Medicaid funds or the federal takeover of insurance regulation, states around the country scrambled to adopt the provisions of the federal law into their statutes.  Wisconsin did not. 

Governor Walker did his due diligence in working with federal agencies to see if the Obama Administration would allow states flexibility in this endeavor. When it became apparent that the state would be nothing more than a puppet of the federal government with no flexibility in implementing PPACA, Governor Walker halted implementation efforts in the state.  Further, in order to protect Wisconsin against a future administration’s efforts to implement ObamaCare, I authored legislation this year requiring legislative approval of all state attempts to implement the law.  Unfortunately, that bill stalled in the legislature.   

Now, with the Supreme Court likely poised to strike PPACA down, Wisconsin is well positioned to address health care costs through free market reforms.  States that rushed to implement PPACA now face a difficult decision; take down their insurance exchange and strip PPACA’s anti-free-market rules from their regulatory schemes, or maintain the status quo and continue down the often politically expedient road to big government medicine and insurance. 

Once again, Wisconsin leads the nation in showing the appropriate role of government in health care.  If the Court strikes down PPACA in total, Wisconsin can demonstrate to the country how free-market solutions can address the underlying issue in the health care debate - reducing the cost of care.

State Rep. David Craig represents the 83rd Assembly District, including parts of Walworth, Racine and Waukesha Counties. Rep. Craig can be contacted at Rep.Craig@legis.wisconsin.gov.