Anti-Obamacare bill shelved in SC House

The latest effort to curb the White House-backed federal healthcare insurance law in South Carolina was put on hold Wednesday in the S.C. House.

But proposals to bar state and local government employees and money from aiding with the Affordable Care Act, and to regulate navigators who assist people in signing up for insurance, could be revived in the state Senate.

On Wednesday, a House panel voted to shelve an “anti-commandeering” bill after hearing 90 minutes of testimony, including six South Carolinians upset about the insurance mandate.

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Supporters of the bill, sponsored by state Rep. Bill Chumley, R-Spartanburg, took exception to the federal government requiring states to assist in enacting laws passed by Congress.

Bill Bledsoe, a Spartanburg veterinarian, said the Affordable Care Act is an example of how Washington leaders have left trillions in debt for future generations.

“The federal government cannot force white-collar slavery on our children by themselves. They don’t have enough manpower,” Bledsoe told the panel. “So the way they have to do it is that they have to use state employees. (The S.C. House bill) simply says we’re not going to allow state employees to back indentured slavery of our children. We’re just not going to allow it.”

But, at the end of the hearing, state Rep. Mike Gambrell, an Anderson Republican who heads the panel considering Chumley’s bill, raised concerns that led to shelving the proposal.

Gambrell questioned why South Carolina would need to limit the involvement of state employees in the healthcare act, also known as Obamacare, since the state chose not to participate in the expansion of Medicaid that is part of that law.

Gambrell, who opposes Obamacare, added regulating health-care navigators, as Chumley proposes, would add costs and employees to state agencies — something many lawmakers want to avoid.

He said lawmakers should wait for the outcome of a court battle about Missouri’s efforts to regulate insurance navigators before passing a similar law in South Carolina.

“I think we’re done,” Gambrell said after the hearing. “Everybody says (it) would be folly to move ahead. I’m not going to put the state in any position for a lawsuit. ... Everybody was heard.”

With the bill stalled in the House, state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, said he plans to introduce a similar proposal in the Senate in the next two weeks.

A bill trying to nullify Obamacare in South Carolina passed the House last year but failed in the Senate.

Davis said he did not expect the Senate to take up his anti-commandeering bill until late in the session because of higher priorities, including ethics reform, and education and road funding.

“The pipeline is full,” he said.

This story was originally published February 4, 2015 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Anti-Obamacare bill shelved in SC House."