Doctors Sue to Overturn the Health Care Bill

Mar 29, 2010 -- Tucson, Arizona. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
(AAPS) became the first medical society to sue to overturn the newly enacted health care bill,
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). AAPS sued Friday in the
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (AAPS v. Sebelius et al.).

“If the PPACA goes unchallenged, then it spells the end of freedom in medicine as
we know it,” observed Jane Orient, M.D., the Executive Director of AAPS. “Courts
should not allow this massive intrusion into the practice of medicine and the rights of patients.”

“There will be a dire shortage of physicians if the PPACA becomes effective and is not
overturned by the courts.”

The PPACA requires most Americans to buy government-approved insurance starting in
2014, or face stiff penalties. Insurance company executives will be enriched by this
requirement, but it violates the Fifth Amendment protection against the government f
orcing one person to pay cash to another. AAPS is the first to assert this important
constitutional claim.

The PPACA also violates the Tenth Amendment, the Commerce Clause, and the provisions
authorizing taxation. The Taxing and Spending power cannot be invoked, as the premiums
go to private insurance companies. The traditional sovereignty of the States over the practice
of medicine is destroyed by the PPACA.

AAPS notes that in scoring the proposal the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) was bound
by assumptions imposed by Congress, including the ability to “save” $500 billion in Medicare,
and to redirect $50 billion from Social Security. HHS Secretary Sebelius stated that PPACA
would reduce the federal deficit, knowing the opposite to be true if these assumptions are unrealistic.

AAPS asks the Court to enjoin the government from promulgating or enforcing insurance
mandates and require HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Social Security Commissioner
Michael Astrue to provide the Court with an accounting of Medicare and Social Security solvency.

Congress recognized that PPACA cannot be funded without the insurance mandates, and will
become unenforceable without them.   Court action is necessary “to preserve individual liberty” and “to prevent PPACA from bankrupting the United States generally and Medicare and Social Security
specifically,” AAPS stated.

AAPS is a voice for patient and physician independence since 1943. The complaint is posted at http://www.aapsonline.org/hhslawsuit

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Jane M. Orient, M.D., Executive Director of Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, has been in solo practice of
general internal medicine since 1981 and is a clinical lecturer in medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degrees in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Arizona, and her M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians a nd Surgeons. She is the author of Sapira’s Art and Science of Bedside Diagnosis; the fourth edition has just been published by Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. She also authored YOUR
Doctor Is Not In: Healthy Skepticism about National Health Care, published by Crown. She is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a voice for patients’ and physicians’ independence since 1943. Complete curriculum vitae posted at www.drjaneorient.com. Additional information on health-related issues: www.aapsonline.org and www.takebackmedicine.com.

jorient@mindspring.com,

Dr. Orient’s position on Obama’s healthcare reform:  “The Obama plan will increase individual
health insurance costs, and if the federal government puts price controls on the premiums, t
he companies will simply have to go out of business. Obama makes promises, but the Plan will deliver higher costs, more hassles, fewer choices, less innovation, and less patient care.”