AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Health Care Policy John Davidson issued the following statement on the lawsuit filed today by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton challenging the Health Insurance Providers Fee, which is an unconstitutional tax levied on Medicaid plans in order to fund Obamacare subsidies:
“By design, the Affordable Care Act coerces states into implementing its various components. The lawsuit filed today by the Texas Attorney General’s office concerns just one of those coercive measures: an unconstitutional tax on Medicaid plans to fund Obamacare subsidies. Federal bureaucrats—not the text of the ACA—determined that this tax, construed as a “health insurance provider fee,” should be applied to states’ Medicaid programs, amounting to a federal tax on any state that contracts with Medicaid managed care organizations.
“In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in NFIB v. Sebelius that Medicaid expansion was unconstitutional coercion—a “gun to the head” of states. This case is no different. By putting Medicaid funds at risk for states that refuse to pay this illegal tax, the White House is again trying to coerce the states.”
John Davidson is the Director of the Foundation’s Center for Health Care Policy.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.