Media

72 Percent of Americans Believe ObamaCare's Individual Mandate Violates the Constitution

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:07:00 GMT

According to a new Gallup poll, most American's believe that ObamaCare's individual mandate (and thus the law) is unconstitutional. Here is how Gallup describes the poll results:

The Supreme Court next month will hear legal challenges to the healthcare law, which are focused on the law’s requirement that all Americans purchase health insurance or pay a fine. Americans overwhelmingly believe the “individual mandate,” as it is often called, is unconstitutional, by a margin of 72% to 20%.

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Can Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Survive ObamaCare

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:09:00 GMT

Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Foundation has a new article detailing the direction that ObamaCare is likely to take American when it comes to employer-sponsored health insurance. She notes that:

"Make no mistake: ObamaCare is behind many employers’ plans to drop their health insurance. At the beginning of the year, McKinsey surveyed more than 1,300 employers from a variety of industries about the effects of the president’s health law. They found that ObamaCare was primed to blow up much of the market for employer-sponsored health insurance.
According to the survey, almost a third of employers say they will “definitely or probably” put a halt to their health coverage by 2014.Among employers that know the most about Obama’s health law, the number is even higher. More than 60 percent say that they will pursue alternatives to conventional job-based coverage."

You can read the full article here.

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Can Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Survive ObamaCare

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:09:00 GMT

AHEC Applauds House Vote to Repeal ObamaCare's Onerous 1099 Provision

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:11:00 GMT

For Immediate Release

Christopher M. Jaarda
571-399-AHEC

AHEC Applauds House Vote to Repeal ObamaCare's Onerous 1099 Provision
Calls for Full Repeal of ObamaCare Next

WASHINGTON, DC -- Earlier today, the United States House of Representatives voted for passage of the Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act of 2011. This legislation would repeal only one of the many job killing provisions of ObamaCare - the provision that would require small businesses to report to the IRS anytime the purchased $600 of goods or services from a business in a single year.

AHEC's spokesperson, Chris Jaarda commented on this vote saying, "This bill will help protect small businesses from one of the truly dangerous provisions of ObamaCare, for that reason its passage is important. The inclusion of the 1099 provision in ObamaCare was nothing more than a budget gimmick on the part of Congressional Democrats. Include the 1099 to claim $20 billion in revenue to pass ObamaCare in 2010, pass the 1099 repeal in 2011 to show how 'flexible' the Democrats are with respect to the implementation of ObamaCare. Its a gimmick and a fraud that has just blown a $20 billion hole in ObamaCare's budget numbers. Congress should repeal all of ObamaCare today and start over with a healthcare reform bill that will expand consumer choices, creating competition in the free-market is the surest way to expand opportunity of every American."

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AHEC Staff Conducts ObamaCare Briefing for Journalists

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:11:00 GMT

Christopher M. Jaarda

571-399-AHEC

LAS VEGAS, NV -- Earlier today, AHEC's staff briefed a group of journalists about the implications of ObamaCare and how the law was negatively affecting consumers, small businesses, families and the economy.

The pair highlighted the fact that, under ObamaCare, seniors were losing their Medicare Advantage, hard-working young adults were losing the option of enrolling in a "mini-med" plan, parents of young children were no longer able to buy "child-only" policies, and that ObamaCare incentivizes employers to drop the insurance they provide to their employees.

"Whether you are old or young, just entering the workforce or about to retire, ObamaCare is already negatively affecting your health insurance and restricting your choices as a consumer," Jaarda said, "The time has long since passed for Congress to repeal ObamaCare and instead adopt a series of reforms that will expand consumer choices. More choices means more competition which will bring down prices. ObamaCare is clearly going in the opposite direction, restricting choices, which is one reason why premiums are increasing faster under ObamaCare than if we had done nothing at all."

Jaarda and Werry also took questions from the audience. Several of those questions focused on Jaarda's comments that "many states are trying to have it both ways when it comes to ObamaCare." 28 states have sued the federal government seeking to have the courts declare ObamaCare unconstitutional, while at the same those states are actively applying for, and accepting, federal grant money under the same law they argue is unconstitutional.

Jaarda said, "Take Governor Mary Fallin in Oklahoma or Sam Brownback in Kansas, both voted against ObamaCare while serving in Congress last year, both Oklahoma and Kansas are suing the federal government, yet both of their states have also accepted ObamaCare grants. They should follow the lead of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and issue an executive order prohibiting state officials from accepting this money."

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AHEC Calls on States to Reject ObamaCare Grant Money

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:12:00 GMT

For Immediate Release

Christopher M. Jaarda
571-398-AHEC

AHEC Calls on States to Reject ObamaCare Grant Money
Give Money Back to Preserve Health Freedom

WASHINGTON, DC -- Earlier this week, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced the latest round of grants to states to aide in the implementation of ObamaCare. Seven grants were announced, including to Kansas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin (all of which are suing to have ObamaCare ruled unconstitutional) and New York, Oregon, Maryland and a group of New England states.

AHEC has urged states, particularly those participating in lawsuits against ObamaCare, to reject these monies. Several states have argued that ObamaCare is unconstitutional because the law coerces the states to act. In cases where the federal government has incentivized states to act, particularly where states have willingly accepted federal funds, courts have been unwilling to find coercion.

"Accepting the grant money makes no sense," AHEC's spokesperson, Chris Jaarda, said, "when states accept this money, they are making a suicide pact with the federal government. This money comes with strings attached, serious strings - and, in this case, those strings are binding states to full implementation of ObamaCare. Who knows what issues will garner the interest of the Supreme Court, but it not beyond the realm of possibility that state acceptance of this money could be the determining factor whereby the Court upholds ObamaCare. States need to think carefully and strategically before taking the money."

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AHEC Applauds Short-Term Funding Measure

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 22:12:00 GMT

For Immediate Release

December 17, 2010

Christopher Jaarda

571-399-2432

AHEC APPLAUDS SHORT TERM FUNDING MEASURE

CONGRESS PULLS BILL THAT WOULD HAVE PUT OBAMACARE FUNDING ON AUTO-PILOT

Washington, DC - Just days after pushing to pass a bloated $1.1 trillion appropriations bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has dropped his efforts to pass the bill. This "omnibus bill" - which is a combination of multiple appropriations bills - included funding for the federal government for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2011.

While many groups criticized the bill as bloated and because it contained billions of dollars in wasteful spending, The American Healthcare Education Coalition (AHEC) opposed the bill on the basis that it included more than $1 billion in spending to implement the ObamaCare legislation.

"Instead of defunding ObamaCare, this bill would have spent more than $1 billion to implement that law, a law opposed by the American people," stated AHEC spokesman Christopher Jaarda, "The fact that the new Congress will now have a say as to whether this money is spent at all is a victory for the American people."

"Think about what Congress was trying to do," Jaarda stated, "Washington politicians pass ObamaCare against the wishes of the American people and the American people fire them as a result of their arrogance. So what do these same politicians try to do after they got "shellacked" last month - they once again tried to ignore the American people by spending $1 billion to implement the same law that got them fired."

Earlier this year, Congress failed to timely pass each of the regular 13 appropriations bills to fund the government before the September 30, 2010 deadline. As a result, the government had been operating under a series of short-term funding bills. In a practice that has become all too common in Washington, Senate Democrats tried to jam more than $1.1 trillion of spending into a single bill and then tried to rush to pass the bill before the American people could scrutinize the bill.

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