Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced Monday that he is joining other governors who have already signaled their intention to resist implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly known as Obamacare. Gov. Butch Otter’s spokesman, John Hanion, told IdahoReporter.com that Otter is carefully considering all his possible courses of action, and will have a more detailed announcement soon.
Otter is in an interesting position in regard to PPACA, which requires individual states to implement their own health insurance exchanges or to use an exchange created by the federal government instead. On one hand, Otter has vociferously opposed both passage of the law and the Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding its constitutionality. On the other hand, Otter was one of the most dominant voices pushing for the creation of a state health insurance exchange during the recent legislative session. That proposal ultimately did not gain traction before the session concluded.
If Otter wants to resist Obamacare in the same way that the governors of Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Louisiana are already doing, that would seem to rule out another push for an Idaho-created insurance exchange. Will Otter join them, acquiese to federal demands or choose some alternate intermediary path?
“All I can say is stay tuned,” Hanion said.
The underlying philosophy of Obamacare was always about more than just health care. The fundamental grievance that I have with this law, and in particular the individual mandate component, is that no government should ever be powerful enough to compel its citizens to purchase a product or a service under penalty of law. What is there now to prevent the federal government, or one of its agencies, from taxing us to compel the purchase of life insurance, a cell phone or any other product Washington deems is necessary for us all?
It makes no sense to oppose Obamacare and then implement it. Cook or get out of the kitchen!