I’m taking this one personally, Governor Ducey

im-watching-you

Per AZ Capitol Times (yes, behind a paywall but I pay for my subscription so I get to talk about it):

Gov. Doug Ducey may have just cost more than 200,000 Arizonans a shot at keeping the health insurance they received through the Affordable Care Act, though they won’t know for sure until the U.S. Supreme Court rules this summer.
Ducey has signed HB2643, which prohibits Arizona or any of its political subdivisions from using taxpayer dollars or personnel to establish a state-run health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act. Arizona is one of 34 states using a federally run exchange after declining to set up a state-run exchange of its own.

About 204,000 people in Arizona now have health insurance through the state’s federal exchange, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

But those federally administered exchanges may not be around for much longer. The U.S. Supreme Court in March heard arguments in King v. Burwell, in which opponents of the Affordable Care Act argued that the law does not allow the federal government to provide subsidies for health insurance purchased through federally run exchanges. Obamacare critics argue that the law only allows for subsidies in state-run exchanges.

Oh great, our “pro-life” Governor wants me to lose the health insurance I got last year, after seven years of being uninsured due to pre-existing conditions. Thanks, Doug.

This raises new questions about where Ducey’s administration falls on the stupid/evil continuum of conservatism. It is certainly callous and cruel to be willing to cast tens of thousands of Arizonans out of the health care coverage they were able to obtain in 2014, so score one for evil! Then again, should the Supremes vote in favor of the plaintiffs in King v Burwell, then Arizona is left with few to no health insurance options for all the striving entrepreneurs that Ducey claimed to be the champion of when he ran for Governor in 2014. It is incredibly dumb of Ducey to signal to budding business owners that they should probably pick another state in which to open up shop. That puts him squarely in “I read Ayn Rand when I was fifteen and it changed my life!” territory, right along with the likes of noted dumbasses like Sam Brownback and Scott Walker.

Either way, Ducey basically told me to fuck off and die.

3 thoughts on “I’m taking this one personally, Governor Ducey”

  1. Initiatives are a good idea. Randy parraz is trying to register 200,000 new voters. We should have democrats running for office pledge they will support the prosecution for murder of those republicans who support taking away health care from people. People have already died when access refused to fund their operations, and more people will die if courts rule against. The goldwater institute will have helped kill people. Republicans should be reminded they will not be in power 35,000 latinos turn 18 voting age every year and they have ids! There is no statue of limitations on murder and it won’t be sheriff joe running the county jail gulag!

  2. The hospital associations and medical providers who came together to support Medicaid expansion should file an initiative that would supersede this simple legislative act, and Prop. 106 (2010) – already struck down by the 9th Circuit. A citizens initiative can establish an ACA state insurance exchange and include a provision that allows for assignment of the operation of the exchange to the federal exchange, as several states have already done when their state exchange encountered problems. It should also expressly overrule the prohibition of the use of state funds for implementation and operation of the ACA by state agencies to remove that obstacle.

    In all of the reporting I have seen on this, not one reporter has mentioned the fact that the Republicans in the Arizona legislature who sued to reverse Gov. Jan Brewer’s expansion of Medicaid (AHCCCS) are scheduled for a court hearing in July. They have a very good chance of success under Prop. 108 (1992), the “two-thirds for taxes” initiative. The hospital associations and medical providers who came together to support Medicaid expansion should also file an initiate for a straight-up repeal of Prop. 108, and remove the jurisdictional basis for this lawsuit.

    If the hospital associations want their hospitals to remain open for business, they have got to act to reverse bad these laws by citizens initiatives.

  3. There is a surprising view of society in which the poor, the old, those with birth defects, those of “lessor races”, those with a “perverse” sexual orientation are regarded as “the weak”. The view is that a misplaced morality of concern for those members cause a proliferation of “the weak”. The view is that this proliferation causes the entire society to degenerate. Therefore, in the interest of the greater society, it is best to let these elements die or, better yet, assist them to that end. This view found wide support in Germany, Italy, and Japan in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Are we not getting a bit of that flavor from the Ducey ( “Il Duce”?) administration?

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