New Medicare Plan Infringes on Sovereignty, States Say

New Medicare Plan Infringes on Sovereignty, States Say Led by Attorney General Greg Abbott, the states of Texas, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, and New Jersey filed suit in the U.S. Supreme Court on March 3, alleging that the new federal Medicare prescription-drug plan – aka "Plan D" – is an unconstitutional infringement on state sovereignty. Under the new plan, sold as a way to save a bundle on Medicare-related health costs, the feds have mandated that individual states pay a portion of plan-related implementation costs – a shell game-like scheme dubbed the "clawback." Thus, the feds are in essence violating the constitutional guarantee of sovereignty granted under the 10th Amendment, Abbott argues on behalf of the handful of state attorneys general.

Under Plan D (which was signed into law in 2003 and took effect Jan. 1), the feds have agreed to provide certain prescription-drug benefits to Medicare recipients, including to patients previously eligible for similar benefits under state-administered Medicaid programs.

With the magic of Plan D now in full swing, however, the feds are requiring that the states pay Uncle Sam a righteous vig on those so-called "dual eligible" patients in order to cover the cost of the new federal "savings" (read ponzi/clawback scheme). This is illegal, argues Abbott on behalf of the other attorneys general (joined in a friend-of-the-court brief by nine other states), because it violates the states' rights to be free from what amounts to a federal tax.

With more than 300,000 seniors eligible for Plan D benefits, Abbott argues, Texas will be left "wallowing in red ink for several years" if forced to "fund" the federal benefit. "Texas and other states have been forced to relinquish control over how we plan and budget taxpayer dollars to support Medicare's federal drug benefit program for seniors," Abbott said in a press release. And under Plan D, the "federal government has placed what amounts to a direct tax upon Texas and other states," thereby interfering with the "essential" sovereign functions of state governance.