10/05/2012 - Myclipp

The New York Times/ - Politics, Qui, 10 de Maio de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Constitutionality.)
Christie Vetoes Health Insurance
Exchange
In a swipe at President Obama’s signature health care
legislation, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey vetoed
on Thursday an online marketplace that the
Legislature created to help middle-class residents buy
health insurance.Under the Affordable Care Act, the
federal law passed in 2010, all individuals must have
health insurance, and states must create the so-called
health care exchanges to help them buy it. In his veto
message, Mr. Christie referred to the pending
Supreme Court challenge to the law and said the
exchange would impose “unnecessary obligations
upon the state’s citizens.” “Indeed, the very
constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is cloaked
in uncertainty, as both the individual mandate to
procure health insurance as well as the jurisdictional
mandate to establish an exchange may not survive
scrutiny by the Supreme Court,” Mr. Christie wrote.
“Because it is not known whether the Affordable Care
Act will remain, in whole or in part, it would be
imprudent for New Jersey now to create an exchange
before these critical threshold issues are decided with
finality by the court.” Mr. Christie was the second
governor to veto such a measure, following Gov.
Susana Martinez of New Mexico, also a Republican.
The veto is largely symbolic: the law required states to
set up health care exchanges, but provided that the
federal government would step in to create them in
states that failed to do so. In either case, the state
pays to set up the health care exchange, even though
states that fail to set up the exchanges lose the ability
to tailor them. Assemblyman Herb Conaway, a doctor
and the lead sponsor of the legislation in New Jersey,
said the governor was sending a message that “he
doesn’t care” about the 1.3 million state residents
without health insurance. “I am disappointed that
Governor Christie put national political pressures
ahead of the well-being of New Jersey,” said Dr.
Conaway, Democrat of Burlington County. “His actions
have once again shown his complete disregard for our
most vulnerable populations.”
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