Another red state caught lying to the Supreme Court about health insurance exchanges

By Joan McCarter

April 06, 2015--Gov. Robert Bentley speaks to educators participating in HudsonAlpha's Genetic Resources to Empower Alabama Teachers (GREAT) Conference at the Department of Archives and History in Montgomery on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2014.

Evidence continues to mount that the Republican states which filed amicus briefs for the plaintiffs in the King v. Burwell Supreme Court Obamacare challenge lied to the court.

Over the past few months, The Huffington Post has been examining various states' documentation of policy meetings, legislative hearings, local news reports, speeches, etc. to find any evidence at all that state lawmakers talked about pre-King what they now say they all knew—that the law was written to exclude subsidies to people buying health insurance on the federal exchange.

A very strong case in point: Alabama.

Republican Gov. Robert Bentley had actually campaigned on setting up a state-based exchange, and initially pushed hard to make it happen.

That included setting up the Alabama Health Insurance Exchange Study Commission, which was tasked with determining costs, processes, working with stakeholders, etc.

Did the possibility that the state's residents couldn't receive the subsidies if the state didn't create an exchange ever come up?

"No. No. No. That was never, never brought up," [state Sen. Jim McClendon (R)] McClendon said in an interview with The Huffington Post last month.

"I was unaware of that stipulation in the Affordable Care Act, and I would almost have to guess that anybody involved in this process was not aware of it.

I was a little surprised when it came up eventually.

Nope.

I was the chairman of the commission and I was totally unaware of that."

In other words, according to McClendon, at no point during the commission's five meetings between September and November 2011, nor during a legislative debate that stretched into the spring of 2012, did anyone conceive of the most significant consequence that could result from Alabama opting for a federally run health insurance marketplace.

The commission ended up unanimously recommending a state-run exchange.

By the time that recommendation was made, Republican opposition to the law and anything at all having to do with it had solidified, and even Bentley flip-flopped.

But in making that decision, there was no "realization" that some 165,000 people would be left out in the cold, unable to afford insurance without the subsidies.

In fact, three more members of the commission who talked to HuffPost completely deny that possibility ever occurring to them.

Two members of the commission, though, say they totally knew about it, one of whom is a former representative who was forced to resign after pleading guilty to corruption charges and the other an insurance industry representative who says he has the notes to prove it, but refuses to make those notes available.

This understanding by the states is critical to the case and to the justices' decision.

They're not deciding whether the law is constitutional, but what Congress intended in this statute.

Critical to that is whether Congress made their intent clear to the states—that's the key to Justice Anthony Kennedy's major concern expressed in the oral arguments.

Was the federal government being unconstitutionally coercive in the law by putting this burden on the states?

And would they be so sneaky about doing so?

Most reasonable people would say "no."

We'll see if the majority of the Supreme Court is made up of reasonable people in June, when their decision is handed down.

According to Rush Limbaugh, women whose birth control is covered by insurance are prostitutes because the rest of society is paying for them to have sex.

 

Rush, you're such a dick!

He says that that means that he should be able to watch.

 

Really? You moron. Pity the woman who winds up under a blimp like you!

What it also means is that men whose Viagra is covered by insurance are gigolos--male prostitutes--

because the rest of society is paying for THEM to have sex.

 

And you know this HOW?

So, according to Rush, we should all be able to watch these filthy man-whores doing the doity deed.

 

Sorry, Rush--We're off getting abortions.  

Isn't it ironic that Viagra was covered by insurance from the moment it hit the market and birth control wasn't even under consideration until Obamacare?

 

Ironic? Not ironic, you phat phuck! President Obama is an attorney, making him a rational and fair-minded man.

Makes ya think, don't it?

 

About what, Rush? What to have for dinner? 

America 2015--On The Road To Fascism

It's hard to believe that a woman could be convicted over what she maintains was a home stillbirth.

But last Monday, an Indiana judge issued Purvi Patel a 41 year sentence, with 20 years to be served in prison, for the crimes of feticide and neglect of a dependent.

While Ms. Patel has consistently maintained that she experienced a stillbirth, prosecutors claimed that she attempted to terminate her own pregnancy, but gave birth to a baby who she then neglected and allowed to die.

No physical proof was presented that she'd taken any abortifacient drug.

Only the "float" test, proven to have no scientific value for decades now, was offered as evidence contradicting Patel's account of a stillbirth.

Yet this flimsy case, along with police testimony that Patel didn't cry in the emergency room when she was seeking treatment for uncontrolled bleeding, was enough to convince an Indiana judge and jury to throw the book at her.

No woman should have to worry when having a miscarriage that the medical professionals she goes to for help will become her informants.

She shouldn't have to worry that police will show up to her hospital room and question her without a lawyer present while she's recovering from severe blood loss and physical trauma.

But this is exactly what happened to Purvi Patel, against all decency and common sense.

It should never happen to anyone.

However, Purvi Patel is the second woman Indiana prosecutors have brought criminal charges against over birth outcomes in recent years, as well as the second Asian American woman so targeted.

Women of color, immigrants, and low-income women are particularly vulnerable under feticide laws because they often lack access to healthcare and counseling.

In other countries where abortion is illegal and where women experiencing miscarriages and stillbirths have been criminalized and punished with lengthy prison terms, these policies appear to coincide with increased suicide rates in pregnancy and avoidance of medical care.

No one should have to fear that pregnancy could land them in jail; as public policy, it's as bad for health outcomes as it is vicious towards pregnant women.

Keep fighting,

Natasha Chart
Campaign Director, RH Reality Check