Oral arguments in the case Coons v. Lew, will be heard today Tuesday, June 10 in San Francisco, before Ninth Circuit Judges Mary Schroeder, Susan Graber, and Jay Bybee. The lawsuit challenges the legality of the Independent Payment Advisory Board which attorneys describe as the “linchpin” of the 2010 federal health care law.
According to the Goldwater Institute, the Independent Payment Advisory Board is the health care rationing super-legislature tasked with setting Medicare benefits and prices. But the rationing board will be far from advisory, according to the Institute. The Board’s actions will automatically become law without public input, congressional vote, the President’s signature, or even judicial review.
Goldwater claims that unlike the VA hospital system, which Congress now seeks to reform, no such reforms will be possible under IPAB. In fact, Congress will not even be able to repeal the board.
According to the lawsuit, Coons v. Lew, IPAB must be struck down because it violates the Separation of Powers doctrine central to the American system. The suit alleges that IPAB represents an unconstitutional delegation of Congressional powers to an unelected, unaccountable executive agency, insulated from American checks and balances.
“This is the greatest expansion of the federal government into our private medical lives in American history,” said Christina Sandefur, an attorney for the Goldwater Institute who is leading the lawsuit. “IPAB will determine when, how, and what kind of medical services Americans can receive and we won’t be allowed to question the board’s decisions.”
Comparing IPAB to the VA, Sandefur said, “A silver lining of the VA tragedy is that both the President and Congress are finally calling for reform. But no such scrutiny will be possible when IPAB makes unpopular, incompetent or harmful decisions.”
“If fundamental constitutional principles are eviscerated by allowing IPAB to stand, Americans can expect stories like the VA scandal to become commonplace.”