Texas' health care decisions pending after ruling

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Texas leaders were left licking their wounds and weighing their options Thursday after a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding most of President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul.

Gov. Rick Perry called the ruling a "stomach punch to the American economy," while state Attorney General Greg Abbott interpreted it as somewhat of a victory for states' rights. In the aftermath, it's unclear how Texas will address the creation of insurance markets, or whether the state will expand Medicaid after the ruling stated the federal government can't withhold states' entire Medicaid allotment if they don't expand the program.

Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said the governor's office will work with Abbott and the appropriate state agencies to determine the effects of the court's decision. The governor gave few specifics, but did blast the ruling, saying that "freedom is under assault."

"I kind of feel like I'm watching that old movie 'The Godfather' and the American people looked the Godfather in the face and he said, 'I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse,'" Perry said on Fox News Channel. "And that offer is, 'You're going to buy my insurance, and if you don't, I'm going to tax you.' That is just unconscionable."

About 6.2 million Texans ? a quarter of the state's population ? are uninsured.

The state estimates about 2 million people would have been added to the Texas Medicaid rolls in the first two years under a Medicaid expansion. But with the Supreme Court giving Texas the leeway to hold off on that expansion without losing federal funds, the decision on whether to do so will be decided when the Legislature convenes in January.

"The state is going to have to consider several options. One is whether or not they want to expand the state Medicaid system consistent with the parameters set out in Obamacare, or if the state wants to exempt itself from that expansion," Abbott said on a conference call from Washington. "That will be a policy decision for the policymakers in Austin to make."

Texas Health and Human Services estimated that the Medicaid expansion would cost the state $27 billion in the first 10 years.

Agency Commissioner Tom Suehs said he is pleased the court gave states the choice not to expand Medicaid, saying the law "put states in the no-win situation of losing all their Medicaid funding or expanding their programs knowing that they would face billions of dollars in extra costs down the road."

Erin Daly, spokeswoman for Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, said the speaker has charged the House Committees on Insurance and Public Health with monitoring implementation of the law, which will guide legislators' work once they are back in session next year.

Texas was one of more than two dozen states that sued, claiming Congress did not have the authority to enact the health care overhaul.

The attorney general said Texas was planning further legal action to stop the health care law. But health care advocates said it was time for the state to move toward implementing the changes called for in the act.

"Starting today, there's no real excuse for dragging your feet," said Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact, a statewide religious grassroots network with a focus that has included health care for all people. "It's time to go ahead and roll up your sleeves and get to work and stop thinking up a way to circumvent this ruling."

Texas has not yet implemented the exchange where individuals and small businesses can shop for private coverage from a range of competing insurers. States face Nov. 16 deadline to submit a plan to the federal government for an exchange. The federal government will implement the system by 2014 if Texas doesn't comply in time.

Abbott said a decision on creating an insurance market will be "hammered out in the coming weeks and months."

He said that even though the court's ruling went against Texas, it was still a victory for individual liberty and states' rights.

He said that "despite the outcome of this case, the federal government is more restrained than it was yesterday," noting that the court sided with Texas and other states that filed lawsuits claiming the law violated congressional powers under the federal Commerce Clause. But Abbott acknowledged losing the case because of the court's "novel application" of federal taxation authority.

Chief Justice John Roberts cast the deciding vote, and Abbott said that, upon close examination of dissenting Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion, "it looks as though Chief Justice Roberts may have seemingly engaged in some judicial activism as opposed to strict construction in order to reach a result."

Roberts was "quite literally reaching to uphold the validity of the law," the attorney general said.

___

Stengle reported from Dallas.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-health-care-decisions-pending-ruling-124651085--finance.html

march madness scores doonesbury padma lakshmi daughtry lakers trade ann arbor news ides of march