Media Hits and Events (4/16/17 – 4/24/17)

April 25th, 2017

Events

 

 

Media

Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, said it remains to be seen how many states would actually take the risk of seeking a waiver. He said a better structure might be to repeal the Affordable Care Act regulations and force states to opt in if they want to keep them.

“What state will actually do this? What we don’t know is what states will have to demonstrate” in order to get the waiver, he said. “Governors are not going to risk this because if it doesn’t work, it’s on them.” . . .

Despite uncertainties, however, any movement represents progress after health reform appeared dead.

“At a minimum, things are moving. I don’t think anyone would have predicted that a few weeks ago,” said Blackman, author of “Unraveled: Obamacare, Religious Liberty, and Executive Power.”

Josh Blackman, an associate professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that such a law is definitely unconstitutional, comparing it to a famous court case.

“In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the Supreme Court held that California could not prohibit the sale of violent video games to minors. That law was overbroad, and violated the freedom of speech,” Blackman told The Daily Caller News Foundation (TheDCNF).

The proposed law in question here “is even more overbroad, and by default, censors the sort of information adults can access unless they pay a fine. Even though the government does have the power to regulate “obscene” content–which is different from pornography — imposing a filter would sweep in a lot of constitutionally protected speech,” Blackman continued.

 

  • Quoted on KRLD Radio 1080 AM Dallas, concerning the Affordable Care Act (April 18, 2017) (Audio).

Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law, said that if Mr. Trump truly wants leverage, then he should cancel an Obama-era rule that lets members of Congress and their staff keep their federal health care subsidies, even though they are mandated by law to use Obamacare’s exchanges.

Regular Americans who buy plans through the exchanges are restricted from having employers contribute to their premiums, so critics of the carve-out say it offered special treatment to Capitol Hill insiders.

“If the cost-sharing subsidies are cut, the American people as a whole will feel it,” Mr. Blackman said. “If the congressional subsidies are cut, the American people won’t feel it. In fact, Americans may be upset that members of Congress are begin given special treatment. I think this issue plays well in the public arena.”