Ross: Texas lawsuit against Obamacare seems a little snowflakey
Nov 11, 2020, 6:11 AM | Updated: Nov 12, 2020, 6:37 am
Demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court as it heard arguments for and against the Affordable Care Act. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the Obamacare case, with the solicitor general for the state of Texas arguing that the law has imposed a burden on his state.
So, Justice Clarence Thomas asked him to “give us an understanding of what your injury is.”
In other words, how is this law hurting Texas?
Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins answered, saying that we should just look at a report from the Congressional Budget Office.
“The CBO confirmed in 2008 and 2017 that simply requiring people to sign up for health insurance would lead people to do so,” he said.
Even though there’s no longer any penalty for not signing up.
“And it’s reasonably likely based on that, that people will sign up for Medicaid who would not otherwise have done so because of the command to do so,” he continued.
Texas’s complaint is that Obamacare did exactly what it was designed to do, and caused more poor people to sign up for Medicaid.
“There’s a substantial likelihood of at least one person signing up for a state Medicaid program, which would of course cause at least one dollar in injury,” Hawkins concluded.
And that is apparently a sufficient burden on Texas for the Supreme Court to take up this case.
But I don’t know, isn’t that a little … snowflakey?
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