WASHINGTON, DC - House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) today issued the following statement after the Supreme Court ruled on the health care law:
“While I certainly disagree with the Supreme Court’s opinion, it does not change the American people’s opinion that the law is unaffordable, unworkable, and still must be repealed. This law was controversial as it was being crafted and it has only grown more unpopular as its reach into individuals’ lives has grown, and threatens to expand further still.
“For the past two years, Republicans have undertaken the kind of careful scrutiny of this law that should have occurred long before it was enacted. With each layer of the law we peeled back, we found more evidence that Obamacare does not allow Americans who like their health care coverage to keep it. Instead, it is a law that would increase costs and taxes on individuals, states, and businesses, making it harder to grow our economy.
“The stakes could not be higher in states like my home of Michigan, where spending is finally under control and jobs are being created after years of high unemployment - but the positive gains will be short lived if the costly mandates and taxes of Obamacare are allowed to kick in.
“We remain committed to reforming our nation’s health care system, and doing so without following the same failed path that brought us to this point of legal confusion, public opposition, and economic uncertainty. One of the mistakes of Obamacare was that it tried to fix every problem in the health care system with one massive new law crafted in Washington. And we ended up with an unpopular and unworkable law because its authors failed to listen to the American people and failed to address the most pressing challenge to our health care system in rising costs.
“Governors across the nation have long sounded the alarm on the unfunded mandates in Obamacare and their impact on state budgets and the sustainability of the Medicaid program. Today’s decision on Medicaid acknowledges at least a small measure of restraint on federal power by rejecting the notion that Congress can cut off all Medicaid funds to a state simply because it chooses not to participate in a massive expansion of the program it cannot afford. But much more needs to be done to preserve state flexibility and avert the spending explosion."
