Cuccinelli in GOP Address: Obamacare Broken Before It Started

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, in Saturday's GOP weekly address, lambasted Obamacare as an "unconstitutional" law that was "fundamentally broken even before it started."

"Obamacare represents one of the largest and most reckless expansions of government in the more than 200-year history of our nation," said Cuccinelli, who is in a hotly contested race for Virginia governor against Democratic challenger Terry McAuliffe. “I believe that ObamaCare is unconstitutional. I believe it’s an affront to the freedoms and liberties our founding fathers fought to establish on our behalf."



Cuccinelli pointed out that he was the first attorney general in the United States to challenge Obamacare in the federal courts, and that he wants to keep challenging the law because it is one that is hurting his state and the nation.

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“During the debate over this law, citizens in the Commonwealth were told they could easily access information about their healthcare choices and join the system, well that proved to be untrue," he said. "They were told their premiums wouldn’t increase, that proved to be false. And they were told they could keep access to their insurance and their doctors, and that proved to be downright dishonest."

The law is already hurting several major employers in Virginia, Cuccinelli continued.
“My alma mater – the University of Virginia – just announced that it will no longer be able to provide health care coverage to many spouses of their thousands of employees.

And just two weeks ago, the Fairfax County Water Authority, a significant government employer in Northern Virginia, announced that it’s going to have to drop coverage for its employees because of ObamaCare’s taxes."

These problems and others are because Obamacare was "fundamentally broken even before it started," Cuccinelli said. "President [Barack] Obama’s ideas are deeply flawed and the implementation of this law has been a national embarrassment. Let me be plain, the law that carries the President’s name is the hallmark of a reckless federal government that has lost its way."

Cuccinelli continued that the nation can do better when it comes to the health care needs of its citizens.

"We need to provide flexibility and choice within our healthcare system," Cuccinelli said. "Our citizens shouldn’t be forced to choose insurance providers and doctors who’ve been preselected by government bureaucrats. We need to open up the insurance market and allow cross state purchase of insurance to drive competition and lower premiums."

Further, he said, doctors are opting out of accepting Medicaid because they're paid little while having to spend time completing regulatory paperwork.

"Our citizens should be able to choose the health care providers who they believe will provide the best care for their needs, and we shouldn't have to make our healthcare decisions with 16,000 IRS agents looming as the ObamaCare enforcers," said Cuccinelli. “We should support market based solutions for healthcare reform and empower patients free of government control."

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