North Carolina’s new Republican majority did not waste time
in challenging the federal health law commonly known as ObamaCare. The second
bill filed in the House (HB2) and the first taken up in committee was the North
Carolina Health Care Protection Act. Democrats in the legislature looked to slow
the bill based on how expensive it could be for the Attorney General to sue
over ObamaCare, although it is essentially free to join the existing suits.
They also argued that the individual mandate is what makes possible all the
purportedly good things in the law — the portions that are already driving up insurance
premiums; forcing more than 700 unions,
companies, and states to seek waivers; killing child-only
policies; and forcing companies out of the health insurance business
entirely. Republicans seemed to enjoy reminding Democrats that bills did not
even get heard under the former leadership and that Nancy Pelosi wanted to pass
the 2,700 pages of ObamaCare to know what was in it. Based on what the Congressional
House Budget Committee learned last week, North Carolina’s General Assembly
might benefit from testimony on ObamaCare’s impact on state government finances
and families.
