April 19
Legal Costs of the struggle against Health Care
Arizona joins 18-state lawsuit
PHOENIX – Arizona is joining the fight to repeal Presidentâ??s health care reform. The Governor says she’ll be signing onto a multi-state lawsuit against the federal government. There’s been some dispute over how much this legal action will cost Arizona taxpayers.
Clint Bolick is with the Goldwater Institute, a government watchdog group. He says Arizona won’t spend much of its own money because they’ll be jumping on-board an existing lawsuit already filed by the state of Florida. He says it’s like joining a party already going on. No one from the state has to go down to Florida for this lawsuit unless they want to. Attorneys don’t have to do anything, there’s a legal team.
But beyond the issue of legal fees, some argue taxpayers will end up paying a lot more down the road if the health care lawsuit is successful. Kristin Borns from ASU’s Morrison Institute says if health reform is rolled back, it will be forced to slash state Arizona health insurance coverage for 300,000 people and that cost will be shifted to the rest of us.
According to her , If we are successful, what is the cost to us? There’s a lot of talk from the governor about what is the cost if we maintain coverage, but the other side is, what the cost is if we don’t? The cost of suing the government over health care may be shared by the 18 states involved in the lawsuit, but the governor’s spokesman says that wouldn’t raise the price tag for Arizona.