With the U.S. Supreme Court on the verge of issuing a monumental decision on Americas health-care future, Gov. Rick Scott has expressed optimism that the justices will side with Florida in opposing the law, its mandates and provisions.
But Scott did add that in the offchance justices uphold the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, Florida would "get around" to implementing the law.
The state first will wait to see what Congress does. And while some news outlets have taken that as a sign that Scott would embrace the law, the governor didnt place a timeline on when Congress would act.
"We'll have enough time," Scott said during a media call with reporters last Wednesday. The call was sponsored by a number of conservative groups including Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform.
It was anticipated that the court would rule last Thursday, June 21, on the law that extends insurance to approximately 30 million people and a mandate that requires every citizen to pay for coverage. But a decision now appears likely Monday, Wednesday or Thursday of this week, as the nine-month term comes to an end.
The court can kill the entire law, kill portions of the law or uphold the law.
Florida, which has been at the front of a 26-state effort to challenge the law, is expected to remain the most adamantly defiant.
Florida has led the challenge and refused federal money tied with implementing portions of the law, such as establishing state insurance exchanges.
"If it's the law of the land, we're going to comply, Scott said.
If any portion of the law is upheld, Republicans in the House would be expected to quickly vote to weaken or wipe out those provisions. But unless changes occur in November that put the GOP in control of the Senate and White House, such an effort may be expected to flounder.
Scott could also have to make a decision on the health care exchanges if they remain law.
The simplest decision would be to continue doing nothing. The state could wait for the feds to come in and do the work that would create the exchange and identify as many as 2 million Floridians who would be eligible for Medicaid and insurance rebates.
But even that would take time, as the deadline for the exchanges to be in place is January 2014.
In a recent interview with Newsmax.TV, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has claimed the law would bankrupt the state. The estimate is that the bill for the laws provision will grow by $1 billion for Florida taxpayers by 2018.
We all know we need health-care reform in our country, but this is not the way to do it," she told Newsmax.
Her office is awaiting a decision by the court before discussing how Florida will react.
Other state groups, such as National Federation of Independent Business/Florida have tentatively made plans for a media conference in Tallahassee for Monday in case a decision is rendered by the court.
There is no case, anywhere close to being on point that says the federal government can do this to us, Bondi has said. If the federal government can force us to purchase a product simply by being alive -- simply by sitting here -- theres no limit to what they can do. So this is very, very important. And its so much bigger than health care.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
