ObamaCare Fight Still On

Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute discusses options for opponents of ObamaCare. Surprisingly, they will exist if enough state-level opponents maintain their resolve -- or at least see that their names will be mud if they cooperate with the expansion of Medicaid.

Now is not the time to go wobbly. Obamacare is still harmful and still unpopular. The presidential election was hardly a referendum, as it pitted the first person to enact Obamacare against the second person to enact it. Since the election, many state officials are reaffirming their opposition to both implementing exchanges and expanding Medicaid.

If enough states do so, Congress will have no choice but to reopen Obamacare. With a GOP-controlled House, opponents will be in a much stronger position than they were when this harmful law was enacted.

The gist of the article is that there are financial and political incentives, as well as legal leeway, for state officials to refuse to set up insurance "exchanges". This is good news, but only in the sense that it buys time. Unless the morality of stealing from some people to pay for the medical expenses of others is challenged -- and unless people start asking by what right the government dictates how we pay for medical care -- these loophole and legal oversights stand a fair chance of being "fixed" upon further review (or "replacement") of this law.

ObamaCare is immoral and outside the proper scope of government: It should be abolished. For the same reason, all other government financing of and meddling with medicine should be phased out completely.

-- CAV