At a recent conference, former Sen. Phil Gramm (R‑TX) remarked, “The Democrats don’t have a health care bill. They have an empty shell.” At the time, I thought the shell would be filled through regulation. But in today’s Wall Street Journal, the Committee for Justice’s Curt Levey reminds us it would also be filled through litigation:
By creating new federally enforceable rights and obligations, layers of complex federal regulations, and dozens of new programs and agencies—not to mention 50 newfangled “exchanges”—ObamaCare would guarantee a flood of litigation. That means more money wasted on attorney fees, physicians focused on legal rather than medical considerations, and growing delays in our already-overburdened courts…
Lawsuits claiming equal protection violations will be limited only by the human capacity to feel discriminated against…
Liberals who complained about the interference of federal courts in the Terri Schiavo case may wind up regretting their push to federalize health care…
Supporters of the legislation favored by the president and most of his party point to socialized medicine in Europe as evidence that federalizing health care won’t be the disaster that many predict. But European nations are not nearly as litigious as our own. The uniquely American combination of bureaucrats, trial lawyers, and judges running our health-care system will prove more costly and deadly than anyone can imagine.
Levey runs through a long list of issues that will be litigated in the courts — but he overlooked that there would be First Amendment litigation, too.
