Dr. Bucshon Comments on King v. Burwell Decision

(WASHINGTON, DC) – On Thursday, Eighth District Congressman Larry Bucshon, M.D. released the following statement in reaction to the King v. Burwell decision by the U.S. Supreme Court:

“Under ObamaCare healthcare costs continue to rise, premiums and deductibles continue to stay unaffordable for families, and middle class workers’ hours are being slashed. While the Americans who may have lost their health insurance because of a poorly written, flawed law are no longer at risk of losing their subsidies, the fact remains that millions of Americans are still without affordable insurance or proper access to the healthcare system. The Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t change these facts.

 

“As a physician who spent my career caring for patients regardless of their ability to pay, my goal is to make sure that everyone has access to quality, affordable healthcare. I will continue working for common-sense solutions that lower costs, expand choice, and put patients back in control of their healthcare decisions.”

In his dissent, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued that, “Under all the usual rules of interpretation, in short, the Government should lose this case. But normal rules of interpretation seem always to yield to the overriding principle of the present Court: The Affordable Care Act must be saved.”

 

Justice Scalia went on to argue that the Constitution grants only Congress the authority to make and mend laws, not the courts:

“The Court’s decision reflects the philosophy that judges should endure whatever interpretive distortions it takes in order to correct a supposed flaw in the statutory machinery. That philosophy ignores the American people’s decision to give Congress ‘[a]ll legislative Powers’ enumerated in the Constitution.  Art. I, §1.  They made Congress, not this Court, responsible for both making laws and mending them. This Court holds only the judicial power—the power to pronounce the law as Congress has enacted it. We lack the prerogative to repair laws that do not work out in practice, just as the people lack the ability to throw us out of office if they dislike the solutions we concoct. We must always remember, therefore, that ‘[o]ur task is to apply the text, not to improve upon it.’”