Newt Gingrich Weighs in on Obamacare Case

With his bid for the Republican presidential nomination floundering, Newt Gingrich, who is now dealing with a campaign shake-up and laying off staffers, weighed in on the Supreme Court listening to oral arguments on a challenge launched by Florida and 25 other states against the federal health-care law signed by Barack Obama in 2010.

In an email to supporters, Gingrich slammed President Obama's health-care takeover and insisted the case had long-term consequences.

This will be one of the most consequential court decisions in generations, as it will decide whether or not government has power over very personal decisions of life and death, Gingrich maintained. I strongly support the 26 states that will argue before the Supreme Court that Obamacare is unconstitutional. But as I fight for the repeal of Obamacare, I will also advocate for specific replacement policies that will empower patients and create a free-market framework for health care.

Gingrich pushed his Patient Power plan which he insisted focuses on solutions that center on the doctor-patient relationship, use the best new science, lower medical costs, and improve the quality of life for every single American. He called for allowing insurance to be bought across state lines, making health insurance more affordable and portable; sending Medicaid to the states in block-grants; tort reform; more research for medical breakthroughs for urgent national priorities, like brain science with its impact on Alzheimers, autism, Parkinsons, mental health and other conditions"; and more electronic medical records.

These are just a few examples of reforms that we can enact, once Obamacare is repealed, that will transform our current health-care system into one centered on the individual, where patients and doctors have power, not Washington bureaucrats, Gingrich noted in conclusion. Repealing Obamacare will be the first task of my administration, but that step alone is not enough to fix our broken health-care system.We need real solutions that will lower costs and improve health outcomes.

With the Republican presidential race heading to Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia -- all of which hold primaries on Tuesday -- Gingrich needs to turn things around quickly. A Marquette Law School poll of Wisconsin released on Tuesday finds Gingrich in dead last among the four major GOP presidential hopefuls with only 5 percent.