Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Oklahoma City– Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John D. Doak said Wednesday that he was not discouraged by a 2-1 ruling Tuesday in a Washington, D.C., federal appeals court upholding the constitutionality of federal health care reform laws.
“This matter will be settled in the Supreme Court, not in the courts of appeals where rulings on the law and its constitutionality have disagreed and federal judges who have heard the same arguments and evidence in the same courtrooms can remain sharply divided,” Doak said.
The United States Supreme Court will hold a closed-door meeting on Thursday to consider which cases to hear in its next session. Among those cases are appeals of other Circuit Court rulings on challenges to PPACA, including an 11th Circuit decision in favor of the law’s opponents. It is likely that the Supreme Court will take up the federal health reform matter. Arguments could be heard by March 2012 with a decision perhaps reached by June.
On Tuesday the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a 37-page opinion upholding the “individual mandate” within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – a provision in the law requiring all Americans to have health insurance or else face federal penalties assessed on their taxes. Yet even in upholding the law by agreeing that Congress has the power to seek national solutions to what it deems to be national problems, Judge Laurence H. Silberman, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, conceded uneasiness with the law spurred by Congress’ failure to write language limiting the federal government’s power over American pocketbooks.
“We acknowledge some discomfort with the Government’s failure to advance any clear doctrinal principles limiting congressional mandates that any American purchase any product or service in interstate commerce,” Silberman wrote in the ruling.
Doak noted that a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt attacks the law at exactly that weak point – PPACA’s individual mandate to purchase a product, health insurance; an order that strips Americans of their freedom to control their own purse strings.
“I’m convinced that Washington doesn’t have the power to order you to engage in commerce. Attorney General Pruitt and millions of others who oppose this law feel the same way,” Doak said.
“As much as I believe that insurance is a crucial product that benefits those who purchase it, I’m equally certain that it is unconstitutional for Congress to demand that every American enter the insurance market. I remain confident that the Supreme Court will agree, and will strike down this law.”
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About the Oklahoma Insurance Department
The Oklahoma Insurance Department, an agency of the State of Oklahoma, is responsible for the education and protection of the insurance-buying public and for oversight of the insurance industry in the state.
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For more information contact:
Glenn Craven
(405) 522-1769
e-mail: glenn.craven@oid.ok.gov