Daily Local - Another View: The Consequences of a Bad Law

Op-Ed

By Rep. Joe Pitts

In just a few weeks, it will be five years since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. The legislative process that created Obamacare may seem like ancient history now but it continues to have an impact on how the law is functioning today.

Obamacare was put together like a college undergrad rushing a term paper. It was slipped underneath the door of the professor late at night with numerous errors. Except, the Affordable Care Act doesn't affect one person's grade point average, it affects millions of American's lives.

Bipartisanship is hard, which is why then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid abandoned the bipartisan committee process that was knitting together health care reform in the fall of 2009. In order to push a bill through the Senate before the end of the year, the leader moved work on the bill into his own office, behind closed doors.

He cut numerous deals with individual senators that ended up with names like the "Cornhusker Kickback" and the "Louisiana Purchase." The legislation was then unveiled just days before the Christmas Eve vote. There were no amendments allowed. The bill passed, but without a single Republican vote.

When Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat, it became apparent that any further version of the bill would not make it through the chamber. Nancy Pelosi simply had to find the votes for what amounted to the Senate's rough draft of legislation.

Some of the law's problems were apparent on day one. For instance, one of the measures to increase government revenue was a provision to require more paperwork from small businesses. This measure was so unpopular that the President signed legislation repealing it within a year.

This wouldn't be the last time the President signed a bill that rolled back part of his signature achievement. Another measure meant to increase revenue was the CLASS Act, a new long-term care insurance program. Provisions in the law required this new program to prove its fiscal sustainability before it could start signing up beneficiaries.

Even the Obama administration couldn't make the numbers work. The program would have needed bailing out by taxpayers within just a few years. The 2013 Fiscal Cliff deal contained language permanently repealing the CLASS Act.

The law contains a new Independent Payment Advisory Board, a new panel intended to propose drastic cuts to Medicare. The Board was supposed to be appointed by 2013, but two years later the President hasn't submitted a single nomination.

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in King v. Burwell. The dispute centers on the meaning of language in the Affordable Care Act that seems to restrict tax subsidies to only individuals in states that have created an Obamacare exchange. The IRS interpreted the statute to say that everyone in any type of exchange, federal or state could get the subsidy.

Because of the unpopularity of the health law and the burden of creating an exchange, dozens of states left that responsibility to the federal government. Millions of Americans could lose support to purchase insurance if the IRS judgment is overturned by the court.

There's lots of argument about what Congress meant by including this provision, but the reality is that there is nothing in the record because the bill was crafted deep in Senator Reid's office.

Yet another failed provision of Obamacare is the federal takeover of the student loan program. In order to make the finances of the new law balance, the legislation contained a provision taking control of all federally-backed student loans. This provision was meant to bring in $61 billion over ten years.

Instead, it has lost an incredible amount of money in a few short years. Because of the President's efforts to forgive loans and delay payments, taxpayers lost $22 billion on student loans just in 2014. With many analysts worried that student loans are a bubble waiting to burst, taxpayers could be on the hook for a much bigger bailout in the future.

There is a reason why legislation is supposed to go through a committee process and an amendment process. Obamacare is a failure in many ways and with the sloppy and secretive process used to create it, that should be no surprise.

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