Heath Care Bill Challenged By Alabama Attorneys and Lawyers - By Editor Attorneys.org

Just around the turn of the year, Alabama attorneys asked to remove a controversial provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that would require the federal government, not the state of Nebraska, to shoulder the cost of new Medicaid enrollees. They believe that the provision reeks of “favoritism” and is constitutionally flawed.

Unfair and unjust ?
The Alabama attorneys were quoted as saying that this particular provision goes against the spirit of the US Constitution regarding arbitrary legislation. The provision was also described as not upholding the universally accepted notions of fairness and justice. In layman’s terms, the provision is asking to give Nebraska a free pass, with other states including Alabama taking up the slack.

It would seem that this provision had been inserted so as to get the vote of US Senator Ben Nelson, who came from Nebraska, to ensure that the legislation would not be derailed. The whole thing smells of “vote-buying” though, and it looks like politics got in the way of common sense once again.

Constitutionally flawed
Additionally, the Alabama attorneys mentioned that while the legislation is laudable in its vision of providing accessible health care, both the federal government and the state are to share in the costs. Singling out one state is possibly against constitutional guarantees as it shows severe favoritism and can be a possible source of future corruption.

Due to the possible ramifications should the legislation be approved along with the questionable provision, the attorney general wrote a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, that they are thinking of challenging the provision in court and asked them to just strike down the offending provision so that the challenge will be rendered unnecessary.

Alabama Medicaid program cash-strapped
The attorneys also feared that the provision will force Alabamians to subsidize the Medicaid program of other states, while leaving their own Medicaid program languishing which is really much a matter of common sense. Why should Alabama pay for another state’s Medicaid program when Alabama’s own Medicaid program lacks funds?

The Medicaid program could cost billions of dollars and with the current provision in place that means Nebraska could skip out of paying billions of dollars in its budget. Those billions have to go somewhere and if Alabama were to subsidize other states’ Medicaid that would mean more budget deficits for the state of Alabama.

There were 13 Republican Attorneys General along with Alabama that signed a petition to Congress to strike down the provision. Troy King is one of the Alabama attorneys mentioned in this article, as well as the Alabama Attorney General and a Republican. That’s all!

See the Attorneys.org Alabama Attorneys page.