Health Care Ruling Fires Up Hillsborough County Republican Party

The Supreme Court decision to uphold President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law, while a win for the White House, stands as a bitter bone of contention for Republicans, according to Art Wood, chairman of the Hillsborough County Republican Party, which is based in Brandon on Oakfield Drive.

“We were all caught off guard a little, I don’t think anybody thought this would be found constitutional,” Wood said in an interview June 28, the day the 5-4 ruling was passed down. “I think we’re trying to recover from the shock and pain.”

• See below for a reaction from a member of the East Hillsborough County Democratic Club, as well as a comment box in which you can add your thoughts as well.

As Wood sees it, the fundamental issue at hand is whether the government had a right to “tax behavior,” which in this case means “if you make a choice not to have mandated health insurance, you’re going to pay a tax and that tax is going to be administered by the Internal Revenue Service.”

“It’s a pretty heavy handed government action,” Wood added. “We have no precedent whatsoever for taxing behavior.”

In this instance, "if you are healthy, you could make the decision not to buy health insurance," Wood said. "Now you can't, because if you don't have health insurance you're going to pay a tax. If this behavior can be taxed, what's the next behavior to be taxed?"

Before the ruling, local Republicans had expected to be contending with what to propose in the aftermath of an unconstitutional ruling, Wood said.

"If the vote went the way we expected, we would have been having meetings to talk about what kind of alternative plans Republicans were going to propose," Wood said. "There was nothing sitting in the wings to bring out."

Issues the Repubicans would have faced, he added, were "how to deal with the preexisting conditions clause, which everybody liked, and keeping children insured up to age 26, we liked that, too."

What needed to be addressed, Wood said, is how to make people "feel like they're spending their own money, and not the government's money," when it came to paying for health care. "It would have been an active debate."

As it stands now, the ruling has left his party with only one choice.

"There's really one choice left, and that's energizing Republicans to get a majority in the Senate, to get the 60 votes needed in the Senate, to remove Obama so bad that 'Obamacare' is doomed," Wood said. "We have to retake the Senate and retake the White House."

The task will be daunting, Wood admitted.

"It's going to be a formidable task but it will give us the motivation and energy we didn't have prior to this ruling, so I'm optimistic," Wood said.

Do you think that the nation's highest court ruled correctly by supporting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? Let us know in the comment box below.

One such reaction is from Gail Gottlieb, an active member of the East Hillsborough County Democratic Club, and a candidate for the state House District 59 seat. She noted in a call for reactions:

Like so many Floridians, I'm relieved that the overwhelming majority of the ACA's provisions have been found constitutional. Although we are already seeing substantial benefits from the ACA, this has been extremely divisive. This isn't surprising with an issue as complex as health care, which involves a web of trade-offs and both societal and personal responsibility. We have so much more to do in both of these areas. For instance, now that the Medicaid provisions of the ACA have been struck down, I hope that Governor Scott will not abandon our societal obligation to the poor and disabled by turning down federal Medicaid funds, which Floridians and all Americans pay into. In the area of personal responsibility, we have to do more to encourage people to make good choices in being stewards of their own health--quitting smoking, getting exercise, avoiding drug use and psychologically unhealthy behavior, even driving more safely. While the ACA focuses on expanding coverage and keeping down costs, these are only part of the equation. Ultimately, health care has to be about better outcomes, better quality of life.

What are your views on the issue? Let us know in the comment box below.