Obama’s Edicts Are Dictatorial, Not Presidential

Family Security Matters

President Obama says he can “fix” the millions of canceled health  insurance  plans with an administrative change. He’s claiming more  executive power – power  for himself – than the Constitution allows, and  is playing fast and loose with  the truth.

The culprit behind the cancellations is not an administrative  regulation, as  he claims. It’s Section 2702 of the Affordable Care Act.  It says all plans sold  in the individual market or small-group market on  Jan. 1, 2014, or later must  include the Essential Benefits Package.

This means 10 categories of health coverage the Washington “experts”   deem essential, such as maternity care even if you’re 50 years old.  Plans are  being canceled because they don’t have all 10.

Only Congress can dispense with the deadline. Last Friday, the House  of  Representatives passed a bill to do that.(Insurers and insurance  commissioners  in several states have said the “fix” is too late to  retool by Jan. 1.)  Nevertheless, the House bill is a legal attempt to  stop the mass  cancellations.

Amazingly, our arrogant president says he will veto that bill if it  reaches  his desk because it would allow insurers to sell the  noncompliant policies to  new customers as well as old. The real reason  is that Obama wants to  rule by edict.

This particular edict could put taxpayers on the hook for a hefty   amount. The American Academy of Actuaries warned that the fix is likely  to  cause healthy people to stick with their old plans, leaving the  sickest in the  new exchanges. That will clobber exchange insurers.

Section 1342 of the law set up a mechanism to bail out insurers that  incur  losses. It’s funded by fees on insurers and employers. The  actuaries predicted  the pot of money might not be enough.

“Costs to the federal government could increase,” the group warned.  The  incorrect part of the actuaries’ statement is “costs to the federal   government.” The federal government has no money. It’s our money.

Obama often brushes off critics of the health law by saying ObamaCare  is  “the law of the land.” (Except when he wants to patch it up  himself.) “It  passed the House. Passed the Senate. The Supreme Court  ruled it  constitutional … it was the central issue in last year’s  election. It is  settled.”

 

That’s a claim you could make about the Affordable Care Act. But not  about  ObamaCare – the ad hoc health reform the president is rolling  out. Obama  himself has stripped the law of key components such as the  employer  mandate and then padded it with handouts to favored  constituencies.

On Aug. 9, the president was asked where he gets the authority  to make these changes.

“In a normal political environment,” he replied, “it would have been  easier  for me to simply call up the Speaker (of the House) and say: ‘You  know what?  This is a tweak that doesn’t go to the essence of the law –  so let’s make a  technical change in the law.’ That would be the normal  thing that I would  prefer to do.”

He’s suggesting these are not normal times, just because Republicans  control  the House. Sorry, Mr. President, but divided government – with  an uncooperative  Congress – is the norm.

Don’t be shocked if a renegade insurance company sues to stop the   president’s most recent fix. Insurers have invested hundreds of millions  of  dollars creating and marketing health plans that conform to the  Affordable Care  Act.

Lower federal courts already are smacking down the president for his   footloose way with the law. Though the Affordable Care Act says only  state  exchanges can provide subsidies to health plan enrollees, the  Obama  administration is trying to offer subsidies in all 50 states,  rather than just  in the 14 states that set up exchanges. The  administration has tried to  get these lawsuits dismissed, but so far has  failed twice.

This isn’t just about ObamaCare. On Aug. 13, the D.C. Circuit Court  of  Appeals ruled against the president for failing to obey a 2002  statute that  required the executive branch to take final action on the  certification of  Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste site.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh ruled that “under Article II of the  Constitution and  relevant Supreme Court precedents, the president must  follow statutory  mandates.”

In our country, the rule of law is king, not Mr. Obama.

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