Beaufort County commissioners have agreed to amplify the voice of dissent to the unpopular health-care overhaul, which was signed by President Obama into law Mar. 24.
At Monday night’s Beaufort County Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Stan Deatherage presented the board with a resolution requesting that North Carolina enjoin a lawsuit with 14 fellow states to sue the federal government over the constitutionality of the Health Care Reform Act. The request would be sent in the form of a letter to N.C. Senator Marc Basnight (Dem.), N.C. Representive Arthur Williams (Dem.), N.C. Governor Beverly Perdue (Dem.) and N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper (Dem.).
“It is incumbent upon us to push our elected leaders to call for this,” urged Deatherage.
Commissioners Robert Cayton and Al Klemm requested that they be given an opportunity to interject certain provisions into the resolution before taking a vote, and the board agreed to form a committee comprised of Deatherage (Rep.), Cayton (Dem.) and Klemm (Rep.) to craft a coordinated resolution.
“I think it’s a good idea, but I sure would like to expand it somehow,” said Klemm, when asked to make a motion on the resolution.
The commissioners will vote on the improved resolution at the next scheduled meeting, set to be held Apr. 26 at 7 p.m. in Belhaven. Deatherage expects the resolution to pass. He is not expecting a consensus on the resolution; but is hoping for one, nevertheless.
In a phone interview after the meeting, Deatherage complained that the federal government’s mandatory requirement that certain persons purchase health insurance or risk being fined is illegal.
“Where they screwed up is when they started telling individuals they have to participate,” said Deatherage. “It’s one thing to tell a state they have to participate.”
Deatherage said he is looking forward to working with the committee in expanding the resolution “so that it will appeal to more members of our board; so that it will have a more significant insistence to our state leaders to help the small businesses and individuals who sustain our state’s economy,” he said. “These individuals who pay most of the taxes in this nation cannot afford to buy their insurance and also pay for other people’s insurance.”
Also, Deatherage commented on his concern over expenses the state and county will likely incur as they try to maintain Medicaid in this new age. The federal government is backing away from old programs as it restructures health care.
“They’re cutting what they’re going to allocate toward Medicaid to help pay for this system,” said Deatherage, who remembers a time when Beaufort County was responsible for 5 percent of the Medicaid Cost, around $2 million per annum.
In March, Deatherage attended the National Association of Counties conference in D.C. to represent Beaufort County as their legislative liaison. Deatherage said the president of NACo (a commissioner from California) was working in concert with the Obama administration to present the health-care legislation as a major component of the NACo conference. This could have had an impact on the U.S. House and Senate’s passage of the act, Deatherage maintains.
“(Commissioners) are the closest elected folks to the people of any area, and when they call their elected representative or senator their voice represents many people,” said Deatherage.
Within his last term, Deatherage has originated similar grassroots resolutions which have passed, resulting in letters mailed to higher governing bodies: one, requesting that the federal government rescind all remaining funds for the stimulus package and another, requesting the state government seek equal protection and parity from the federal government, which had just cut special deals with Louisiana and Nebraska to gain their support for the health-care reform bill.
