Boustany Says King v. Burwell "Crucial' As Oral Arguments Begin

Press Release

Congressman Charles W. Boustany, Jr., M.D., (R-South Louisiana) issued the following statement as oral arguments began in the King v. Burwell case before the Supreme Court.

Boustany said: "King v. Burwell is the Supreme Court's chance to make a statement that the rule of law will be upheld. The statute of the Affordable Care Act is clear -- the Administration does not have the legal authority to distribute subsidies for healthcare through a federal exchange. This decision has the potential to be the crucial blow to the broken ObamaCare law, creating an opening for Congress to establish our vision of true healthcare reform."

Earlier this week, Ways & Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN), and Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, "An Off-Ramp From ObamaCare," that presents a conservative vision of healthcare reform. In January, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) selected these three Chairmen to head the Working Group on Replacing ObamaCare with the possibility of a decision dismantling the law in King v. Burwell in mind.

Ryan, Kline, and Upton write: "If the court rules against the administration, as any fair reading of the law would demand, millions of individuals and families will hit a major roadblock: They'll be stuck with health insurance designed by Washington, D.C., that they can't afford. Americans should have an off-ramp from ObamaCare--a legislative alternative that leads them away from an expensive health-care wreck and toward a patient-centered system… What we will propose is an off-ramp out of ObamaCare toward patient-centered health care. It has two parts: First, make insurance more affordable by ending Washington mandates and giving choice back to states, individuals and families. And second, support Americans in purchasing the coverage of their choosing."

According to a poll conducted by Paragon Insights for Freedom Partners, 55% of Americans still oppose ObamaCare. In addition, a majority of Americans believe that "even if it was just a drafting error, the IRS was wrong to take matters into its own hands. In our system of government, if a fix is needed it's up to elected officials to correct mistakes in the laws they passed, not unelected bureaucrats."

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