ATLANTA— State Representative Jason Spencer (R-Woodbine) today issued the following statement regarding the D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on the legality of “Obamacare” in states that did not establish a health-insurance Exchange:
“Today the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals may have cut the head off of the medusa (“Obamacare”) which is paralyzing the healthcare industry. The Courts’ ruling essentially invalidates any subsidy, or tax payer handout, being awarded to consumers on the federal Exchanges, whereby this decision would indicate that billions of tax payer dollars were given to thousands of enrollees illegally. These subsidies are essentially distributions of other tax payers’ wealth to offset the cost of a policy that individuals are forced to purchase under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
“Today’s ruling would prevent the IRS from shifting the burden of those insurance premium costs from enrollees to taxpayers. Premiums for federal-Exchange enrollees would not rise, but instead, those enrollees would face the full cost of their “Obamacare” plans. By enrollees facing the full cost of the policy, the administration and ACA supporters will not be able to escape the political wrath for which they will be subjected to at the ballot box in future elections.
“To my knowledge, Georgia is the first state in the country to have banned the creation of state-health-insurance exchanges under “Obamacare” through a legislative act. In this year’s Georgia Healthcare Freedom Act (HB 943), I authored a provision in that law that would BAN the state of Georgia from establishing an Exchange. By not establishing a state-based Exchange, coupled with today’s ruling to invalidate the subsidies offered on the federal-based Exchange, the actions taken by the Georgia General Assembly and the D.C. Circuit court will EXEMPT Georgia employers from penalties and EXEMPT low-to-middle income individuals from the costly individual mandate under Obamacare. As a result of these collective actions, 420,227 individual Georgians would be exempt from the costly mandate. In addition, over 11,000 firms and their 2.4 million employees would be exempt as a result of today’s ruling, as well as 112,991 state employees – totaling 2.5 million employees in Georgia being exempt from the costly Obamacare mandates.”
The D.C. Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals case, Halbig v. Burwell is, one of four lawsuits challenging the legality of the health-insurance subsidies the IRS is dispensing in the 36 states that did not establish a health-insurance Exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” and thus have Exchanges established by the federal government.
Representative Jason Spencer represents the citizens of District 180, which includes Camden, Charlton, and Ware counties. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2010, and currently serves as the Secretary of the Special Rules Committee. He also serves on the Game Fish & Parks, Human Relations & Aging, and Juvenile Justice committees.
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