1851 Center Applauds Kasich Agreement on Obamacare Exchange

Columbus, OH – The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law today registered its approval, on behalf of conservative and libertarian leaders throughout Ohio, of the Kasich Administration’s agreement to refuse to implement a “state-run” Obamacare exchange.

The Administration’s agreement is significant for several reasons:

• The agreement averts litigation that would have pitted Section 21, Article I of the Ohio Constitution, the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, and grassroots backers of the Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment against the administration (Division (A) of the Health Care Freedom Amendment prohibits the “employer mandate” that a state exchange would have attempted to impose).
• The agreement means that Ohio will not impose the “employer mandate,” a penalty of up to $3,000 per employee that must be otherwise paid to the federal government by Ohio employers who do not provide government-approved health care insurance for their employees.

• The agreement means that Ohio will not provide Obamacare “premium assistance,” a taxpayer-funded subsidy to individuals that masks the true increased costs of health insurance premiums imposed by Obamacare (the Administration estimates that Ohioans’ health insurance premiums may increase by as much as 85 percent).

• The agreement means that Ohio will not assist the federal government in enforcing Obamacare’s “individual mandate.”

• The agreement means that Obamacare will be significantly more difficult to enforce, dramatically enhancing the probability that the Act will be “re-opened” to debate, amendment or repeal.

While the issue appears esoteric, the impact of the Administration’s decision cannot be underestimated. The Act’s “employer mandate” taxes employers up to $3,000 per employee if they fail to offer required health benefits. But that tax applies only if employers receive tax credits or subsidies to purchase a health plan through a state-run insurance exchange.

The federal government might create exchanges in states that decline to creat e state-run exchanges, but it cannot offer credits through its own exchanges. And where there can be no credits, there is nothing to trigger that $3,000 tax on employers. The Obama Administration appears intent on using the Internal Revenue Service to impose the employer mandate, but there is no legal authority to support doing so, and the regulation attempting to do so is unlikely to be upheld.

Further, it is highly likely that Obamacare will collapse without the employer mandate and tax credits, just as it would have without the individual mandate.

In addition to inviting Obamacare into Ohioans’ lives, the Kasich Administration acknowledges that a state-run exchange would cost about $43 million annually, versus about $1.6 million to participate in the federal exchange.

“We are pleased that the Kasich Administration heeded the clear effect of the Health Care Freedom Amendment (passed in 2011), which prohibited Ohio from enacting a state based Obamacare exchange,” said Maurice Thompson, Executive Director of the 1851 Center. “We can now turn our attention away from the Kasich Administration, and begin to prepare litigation that ensures that Ohio employers will not be subjected to the $3,000 per employee fine, and that Obamacare ultimately collapses under the weight of its own legal infirmities.”

Read the 1851 Center’s explanation of why a state-run Obamacare exchange is bad policy, and violates the Ohio Constitution, here.

November 16, 2012: WKSU NPR: Kasich rejects health-insurance exchanges

November 16, 2012: Ohio Liberty Coalition: Governor Kasich confirms that creation of Ohio’s Obamacare exchange will be left to the feds

November 19, 2012: WYSO Ohio Public Radio: Kasich Tells Feds Ohio Won’t Set Up Its Own Health Care Exchange

November 19, 2012: Insurance News Net: Ohio: No State Health Care Exchange

November 20, 2012: Ohio Watchdog: OH: Step 2 — Sue IRS over Obamacare rule

November 21, 2012: Watchdog.com: VA: NFIB, Cuccinelli weigh Obamacare exchange costs; could Virginia get a pass?

November 23, 2012: Heartlander: Kasich Decides Against Obamacare Implementation

January 10, 2013: Heartland.org: Without State Exchange, Ohio Small Businesses Have Standing to Sue IRS