Obamacare is costing Georgians jobs and income. However, the Supreme Court could soon overturn important parts of the president’s health care law — not because of its economic effects, but because the federal government usurped states’ power.
Drafters of the bill never imagined so many would refuse to implement the top-down legislation. No matter. When states refused to open taxpayer-subsided insurance “markets,” federal bureaucrats stepped in. Because Washington still has no contingency plan in the event the court strikes down its blatant disregard for the letter of the law, I am sponsoring a bill to let states repair the damage.
Georgia is one of nine states that have already adopted the Health Care Compact, an alternative to one-size-fits-all regulations from Washington. The HCC shifts health care policy power and funding to states from federal agencies. It provides a legal shield against further encroachment.
Interstate compacts like the HCC are as old as the Constitution. States have turned to them hundreds of times since our country’s founding to administer everything from agriculture to energy projects.
Under Article I, they require Congress’ consent. My bill grants approval, freeing Georgia and cooperating states from the inefficient, ineffective and poorly named Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.
States that choose to join the Health Care Compact, as Georgia has done, would manage their own health care affairs with existing federal funds. Each would be free to choose the system that best serves its residents: a market-based system, a single-payer one, or any variation in between.
The HCC would continue to allow federal health care programs for the military, veterans and Native Americans. The Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health would remain federal responsibilities.
The case is clear: More than 96 percent of health care is provided and consumed within a state’s borders by its own residents, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Localized services would be more responsive, and Georgians want them closer to home.
The Health Care Compact, returning spending and policy details to states like Georgia, solves the errors of centralized power and decision-making that bedevil health care right now. Cost and quality will never improve as long as faraway politicians and bureaucrats, or even Supreme Court justices, call the shots.
The Health Care Compact is about more than health care. A core American value is at stake: A government that resides closest to the people governs best.
Congressman Doug Collins, a Republican from Hall County, represents Georgia’s 9th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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