Whereas, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 on March 30, 2010; and
Whereas, these bills provide a fundamental reform of the nation's health insurance industry and expand coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans; and
Whereas, the new law provides a tax credit to 93,000 small businesses in Virginia to make purchase of health care more affordable, and the new law provides the 628,000 Virginians under the age of 26 with the option to obtain insurance under their parents' plan;
Whereas, a key element of health care reform is ending discrimination by insurance companies based upon pre-existing conditions ("universal underwriting") which will assist an estimated 112,000 Virginians in gaining coverage; and
Whereas, the new law requires individuals to maintain minimal essential health care coverage beginning in 2014 to make such universal underwriting possible by broadening the insured risk pool; and
Whereas, the new law affords states great flexibility in establishing alternative programs to meet the reform and coverage objectives of the new law; and
Whereas, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Commonwealth challenging the authority of the Federal Government to enact the new health care reform law on the grounds that it exceeds the federal authority under the Commerce Clause; and
Whereas, the Attorney General's duty is to serve the cause of justice in Virginia rather than to use his position and scarce taxpayer dollars to pursue his personal ideological agenda; and
Whereas, while the Attorney General is wasting scarce taxpayer dollars to pursue this lawsuit, Virginia's current budget contains painful funding cuts to its Medicaid, education, school meals and other priority safety net programs;
Therefore Be It Resolved that, the Arlington County Democratic Committee on April 7, 2010,
1) commends the Congress and President Obama for enacting comprehensive health care reform,
2) condemns Attorney General Cuccinelli for wasting taxpayers' funds to pursue a frivolous and politically-motivated litigation, and
3) calls upon the General Assembly to enact funding restrictions on the Attorney General to halt this frivolous litigation.
