News: Obama care: Republican Senators Call for Opt-Out Legislation

Briefing Capitol Hill, Washington D.C

February 01, 2011

Williams Ekanem

Two United States Senators, Senators Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) and John Barrasso (Wyoming) on Tuesday introduced, The State Health Care Choice Act to repeal and replace the Health care law by allowing states to “opt-out” of its major provisions.

Addressing Congressional Reporters, the proponents of the bill said that this is necessitated by Monday’s ruling by a federal judge that ruled the new health care law unconstitutional.

U.S District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida while ruling on the application of 26 States to void the health care law said it is unconstitutional and such provisions should be struck out of the bill.

Ina an immediate reaction, Barrasso and Graham on Tuesday Morning on the floor introduced a measure that would allow states to get exemptions from the law’s expansion of Medicaid, its requirement that most individuals have health insurance or pay a penalty, and the requirement those businesses of certain size offer coverage to their employees.

According to Graham, “Medicaid expansion under Obama care will be devastating to many states, including South Carolina; we are already facing a severe budget shortfall this year. The future expansion of Medicaid, which adds an additional one billion dollars of state matching funding requirements and will result in nearly 30 per cent of South Carolinians being eligible for Medicaid- only adds to our budget problems.”

On his part, Barrasso said that “as a doctor in Wyoming, I witnessed regularly how Washington simply didn’t understand the needs of the people of our state; after Obama care, Washington is more out of touch than ever. Instead of requiring states to follow Obama care’s one size fits all health care policy, our bill lets states decide what works best for them.”

The Republican Senators noted that the Obama administration has already issued 733 waivers to businesses allowing them to continue offering insurance to their employees and questioned why states should not have the same ability to obtain relief.

However, almost immediately, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill said such call is unrealistic, likening the call for non compulsory insurance as that of asking motorists to go for cover after an accident.