Free Americans from Medicare

Through an arbitrary act of executive overreach, the Obama administration limited the freedom of Americans. Three of the top constitutional conservatives in Congress are trying to reverse that.

Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas have co-sponsored a bill to let people opt out of Medicare benefits without losing their Social Security earnings. Alabama Republican Rep. Gary Palmer has introduced the same bill in the House. Passing these bills into law would reverse one of Justice Brett Kavanaugh's worst decisions on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Because of the circuit court’s decision in Hall v. Sebelius in 2012, senior citizens are not allowed to save taxpayers money by choosing to renounce their Medicare entitlement in favor of private insurance unless they also forfeit their Social Security benefits. Kavanaugh and Judge Douglas Ginsburg ruled that an informal, intra-agency decision by the Department of Health and Human Services, publicized in Medicare’s operations manual without any formal rule-making process, barred seniors from that option.

More