Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach is urging Congress to ratify a state health care compact to get around what he calls the Supreme Court’s “erroneous” decisions on the Affordable Care Act.
In a letter to Republican members of Congress, Kobach said the compact was the only legal path left to end Obamacare and to restore the Constitution.
Kansas is one of nine states that has signed on to the compact, which–-if approved by Congress--would give them the power to run Medicare and Medicaid within their borders.
Kobach, a Republican who was re-elected last fall, says that approval of the compact does not require the president’s signature – an assertion that some experts have questioned.
“That was a question that wasn’t clear, that there were some other legal scholars around the country who had disagreed with that and did not believe that was the case," says Linda Sheppard, an analyst with the Kansas Health Institute in Topeka.
Critics of the compact say it could jeopardize Medicare benefits for nearly half a million Kansans.
Dan Margolies is a reporter with Heartland Health Monitor.