Dave Helling: Health care compact is sound and fury, signifying nothing

Some Johnson Countians are still pretty worked up over the Kansas Legislature’s decision to join a nine-state health care compact, designed to move oversight of the nation’s health care programs to state capitals.

The U.S. Constitution allows states to form common-interest compacts, with congressional approval. Kansas and Missouri formed a compact in the 1990s to enable the bistate sales tax for Union Station, for example.

The health care compact would be different. Under it, states could seize control of programs such as Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, taking at least some of the federal revenue now spent on those programs.

This has upset lots of folks. Imagine Sam Brownback or Jay Nixon in charge of Medicare, and — well, you get the idea.

But the hand-wringing over the compact may be misplaced.

The actual bills outlining the compact are laughably unconstitutional. The bill would allow member states to “suspend by legislation the operation of all federal laws, rules, regulations and orders regarding health care,” language that patently violates both the Constitution’s clause that makes federal laws supreme and the 14th Amendment.

The Constitution starts with “we the people,” not “we the states.” Its protections extend to individuals who are U.S. citizens. Lawmakers can’t wave a magic wand and change that.

You’d think people who make laws would grasp this.

The compact further promises member states “shall have the right” to claim a per-person share of future federal health care spending. No mere resolution can bind Congress to that commitment.

Despite those flaws, supporters and opponents have launched a pitched battle over the plan. Websites are up. Ads are posted to the Internet. News releases are published.

Which is unfortunate, because there are real problems in health insurance and care that deserve actual attention.

Medicaid, the health insurance program for the working poor, remains out of reach of hundreds of thousands in Kansas and Missouri. That’s a real issue, not a theoretical one.

Obamacare has prompted employers to limit hours and dodge required coverage. Some policies are being canceled. Some insurers are backing away from state-based exchanges, which continue to struggle.

Those are all actual problems. They deserve more focus than a back-of-the-envelope health care compact plan that has virtually zero chance of ever becoming law.

This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Dave Helling: Health care compact is sound and fury, signifying nothing."