Massachusetts, other states sue regime to try to block destruction of Obamacare

Massachusetts and 20 other states today sued the regime over changes to the Affordable Care Act they say will leave millions of Americans without insurance and bar states from providing gender-affirming care to transgender residents.

In their suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, the states charge that the regime, as is par for the course, is violating the federal Administrative Procedures Act, which requires rational decision making and compliance with other laws passed by Congress, in its proposals for radically changing how health-insurance exchanges work such as setting national standards for health-care decisions states had previously been allowed to make on their own - and with just four months until the next enrollment period is set to begin. Referring to a "final rule promulgated by Secretary Brainworm and his toady Dr. Oz, the states charge:

Nearly every marketplace change implemented by the Final Rule will be harmful to individual consumers and state and local governments. And the cumulative effects of these changes - coupled with the expiring enhanced APTCs [advance premium tax credits] - will be catastrophic. The Final Rule imposes burdensome and costly paperwork requirements, limits the opportunities to sign up for health coverage, diminishes the actuarial value of coverage for those who still manage to procure coverage, substantially increases cost-sharing limits, and forces exchanges and consumers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to prove eligibility for coverage and subsidies. These changes will result in direct and immediate costs to States as well as harms tied to decreased enrollment.

The continue that by effectively booting millions from the exchanges, through such things as new fees, extra complicated income verification procedures and shortened enrollment periods, the regime will help spur new epidemics of health-care issues:

Just a year ago, HHS acknowledged that "[i]ndividuals without health insurance are less likely to receive preventive or routine health screenings and may delay necessary medical care, incurring high costs and debts," and that such "[d]elays in care can lead to negative health outcomes including longer hospital stays and increased mortality." ... Loss of insurance can also result in increased medical debt, reduced spending power, lost work productivity, and absenteeism - as uninsured individuals, less likely to seek preventive care, are more likely to get sick and miss work. ... Moreover, individuals who have recently initiated a time-sensitive course of treatment they were previously delaying, such as chemotherapy, will now have to decide whether to continue such treatment and pay out-of-pocket, or to interrupt treatment and risk significant adverse health consequences.

That's especially true for people who find that their treatments for gender dysphoria are no longer covered at all, the suit charges.

The states ask a judge to impose an injunction to keep the regime from implementing its new rules.