A proposed bill, on special order in the state Senate, would allow the state attorney general to take businesses, including health insurers, to court if he “has reasonable cause to believe” they are harming people by implementing the law. The bill already has passed the House.
If it passes, the bill could push South Carolina to the forefront of Obamacare resistance, giving the state’s Republican leaders a national stage. It also could push South Carolina into yet another costly legal battle in the federal courts that, critics say, is unnecessary and avoidable.
“It is going to get us in court, as we all know. But ... it is worth the risk to see if we can protect our state from this far-reaching federal legislation,” state Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, one of the lawmakers pushing for the Senate to pass the bill this week before it adjourns for the year.
Many Senate Democrats, and some Republicans, dismiss the bill as nothing more than a symbolic political salvo meant to provide fodder for lawmakers’ legislative newsletters and campaign signs. But health-insurance companies are worried the bill could complicate further their efforts to navigate the regulatory landscape.
“We need to make sure that companies – health-care providers in South Carolina – aren’t faced with situation where the federal government says you must and the state government says you cannot,” said Bob Coble, an attorney for Nexsen Pruett who represents several hospitals.
Which is the point: the same people who say the federal government is using the coercive power of the state to hurt citizens are the ones passing a law expressly giving the state AG the right to use the coercive power of the state to hurt citizens. Awesome.
Also, the point is to elicit political change by subjecting businesses, insurers, providers, and citizens to harm over their political choices and letting them know that if they are caught disagreeing with the SC GOP, they face serious and harmful reprisal.
There's a term for that, and it begins with the letter "T".
Let that sink in for a bit, what these assclowns are doing, then tell me again they're not virulently racist sacks of manure.
Who said South Carolina was "too small for a republic, too large for an insane asylum"?
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