MEDIA ADVISORY: HOBBY LOBBY DECISION IS A SMALL VICTORY, BUT IT DOESN’T STRIKE THE HEART OF OBAMACARE

Contact: Michael Kelley

(602) 633-8985

MEDIA ADVISORY: HOBBY LOBBY DECISION IS A SMALL VICTORY, BUT IT DOESN’T STRIKE THE HEART OF OBAMACARE

Christina Sandefur, Goldwater Institute Senior Attorney, praised the high court’s decision in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Monday, but warned that the decision does not get at the heart of defeating Obamacare. The Goldwater Institute’s own legal challenge against the federal health care law, Coons v. Lew, could eviscerate the Obamacare law completely by invalidating the Independent Payment Advisory Board, the cost-rationing board that is the lynchpin of the federal law. That case is currently pending before the Ninth Circuit but is expected to be taken up by the Supreme Court in coming months. Sandefur stated:

Today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling dealt a much-deserved blow to Obamacare’s mandate on businesses to provide contraceptive coverage that conflicts with a business owner’s religious objections. However, the contraception mandate is just the tip of the iceberg of the threat Obamacare poses to the American people. Far more threatening is the key provision of Obamacare that remains on the books: The Independent Payment Advisory Board. Created to control Medicare prices, this powerful health care rationing agency can regulate and tax both public and private health care, and its actions automatically become law without Congress’s vote, the president’s signature, the public’s input or even the courts’ review. Wielding the powers of every branch of government but accountable to none, IPAB is the most extreme consolidation of government power in American history. If the Constitution’s separation-of-powers principles are not respected, Americans can expect many more controversial and burdensome Obamacare regulations to come.

To read more about that case, visit: https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/coons-v-lew-federal-health-care-lawsuit

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To schedule an interview with Goldwater Institute, please contact Michael Kelley with the Goldwater Institute at (602) 633-8965 or mkelley@goldwaterinstitute.org. The Goldwater Institute has an in-house VideoLink studio for rapid cable hook-up if needed.