Health Care

OCPA President Jonathan Small praises withdrawal of Oklahoma Obamacare exchange bailout tax

October 3, 2017

OCPA President Jonathan Small Praises Withdrawal of Oklahoma Obamacare Exchange Bailout Tax

“House Bill 2406, which authorizes the state-level Obamacare exchange bailout tax, was a direct violation of Oklahoma’s Constitution as it was a revenue bill that passed the last week of session and failed to obtain a three-fourths majority vote in the Oklahoma Senate.

“The bill would have resulted in millions of dollars in tax increases on nearly 1.5 million innocent Oklahomans who are doing their best in the horrendous environment that is Obamacare. While some bureaucrats in Oklahoma wanted to strap a bailout tax on Oklahomans, thankfully the Trump administration forced this devastatingly bad scheme to receive public scrutiny—which has resulted in its wise withdrawal. This is great news for the 1.5 million Oklahomans who would have been further required to subsidize the dysfunction, harm, and lack of care that is present in Obamacare on the exchange.

“OCPA is grateful the Trump administration is refusing to rubber stamp local bureaucratic attempts to further burden 1.5 million Oklahomans with subsidizing the failed and critically and structurally flawed Obamacare exchanges. Subsidies and bailouts won’t fix the fatal flaws in Obamacare. OCPA will continue to watch vigilantly efforts to further burden working Oklahoma families with bad policies from Obamacare. We will work more closely with lawmakers to ensure that another attempt to create a bailout tax for the state Obamacare exchange is not implemented and strapped upon working families in Oklahoma.”