Into the health care debate in her blog post today on the letter that outgoing AG Bill Mims has signed with 12 other GOP AGs threatening a lawsuit if the Cornhusker Kickback (the $100 Million Medicaid subsidy given to Nebraska to obtain senator Ben Nelson’s vote) remains in the final bill.
The key passage is this.
Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli said he has spoken to Mims and shares his concerns, although his legal interpretation might be slightly different. He said he does not believe that the federal government can force each state to create health-care exchanges or their own health-care markets.
Slightly different?
I think that Cuccinelli may be understating the significance of his own objection.
The AGs’ letter is directed at a very specific provision in the law, a particularly egregious and over-the-top example of congressional logrolling that the GOP has artfully highlighted to stoke public discontent with both congressional health care legislation and manner in which the Democrats conduct business in the Senate.
If the Cornhusker Kickback goes away in the effort to reconcile the differing bills in the House and the Senate (Nelson may have been too clever by half- Nebraskans appear none too happy about the preferential treatment he’s trying to obtain for them), the lawsuit threat disappears.
Cuccinelli’s intepretation is directed at a more central and broader principle contained in the legislation.
As Kumar reports, he doesn’t believe that the federal government can force the states to create their own health care exchanges or health care markets.
Eliminating the Cornhusker Kickback may be enough for the 13 AGs to withdraw their suit.
But it doesn’t satisfy Cuccinelli’s objections about the extent of federal overreach contained in the legislation.
I’m not exactly sure what, if any, actions the incoming AG will take if Congress proceeds along the path it is taking.
But I’d be very surprised if his objections don’t become far more visible and prominent in the months ahead.
Leave a Reply