South Carolina Seeks to Ban State Money Being Used for Obamacare

When South Carolina’s legislative session begins on Tuesday, lawmakers in the Palmetto State will seek to stop the implementation of Obamacare. They hope the legislation they are drafting can be a template for other states looking to do the same. 

According to Reuters, “the proposed measure would ban state agencies from helping carry out” Obamacare and “prevent federal money flowing through state coffers from being spent on it.”

State Senator Tom Davis (R), a Tea Party and libertarian favorite, said the “legislation would give South Carolina oversight of insurance rates offered through its federal exchange and require healthcare navigators, which help people sign up for the healthcare benefits, to be licensed by the state.”

“Even though the federal government may pass a law, and even though that law may be constitutional, that doesn’t mean that the federal government can direct the state to spend state dollars to implement it,” Davis, who will chair the committee that is drafting the measure, told Reuters. “States aren’t simply political subdivisions of the federal government.”

Reuters notes that “six states have barred their employees from helping implement” Obamacare, and at least eight states have regulated the Obamacare navigators. Lawmakers in states like Georgia have already said they intend to follow South Carolina’s lead. 

Last year, South Carolina’s House of Representatives passed a bill that would nullify Obamacare, but Davis conceded that would not have “passed legal muster.”

Davis said he feels South Carolina is “holding the fort until we can get people in Congress that can repeal or replace it.” He said supporters of the bill would need every Senate Republican to vote for it because Democrats would filibuster it.