Sources in Washington D.C. have informed TMCV that Congressman Bruce Poliquin intends to announce the end of this week, possibly Thursday morning, that he is an original co-sponsor of a bill HR 1190 which repeals the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) established by the Affordable Care Act.  IPAB has been labeled by the Cato Institute as perhaps the most unconstitutional part of the ACA, and may be the most unconstitutional creation in the history of the United States.  It has also been denounced by the AAMC, the Association of American Medical Colleges.

IPAB is a regulatory board created through the Affordable Care Act, at the behest of President OBama and his Chief architect at the time Peter Orszag to bypass the checks and balances our government.  The board is composed of 15 healthcare professionals appointed by the President.  The regulatory “proposals” that are issued from IPAB are to be implemented immediately by the Secretary of Health and Human Services without approval from Congress.  If all three branches of government cannot come up with a bill that matches the precise intent of the IPAB “proposal” it becomes law, with no vote from Congress and the President  has no power of veto.

But the appalling autonomy of IPAB does not stop there!  If Congress fails to repeal IPAB before 2017, language in ACA prevents all three branches from repealing this board and/or altering any of its proposals at any time.  This gives IPAB the power to alter the Constitution through statute, or its “proposals”.  Not only does IPAB hold regulatory control over ObamaCare but it also has been granted oversight in the private healthcare market.

This is a brief overview of the egregious attack on the Constitution this facet of the ACA represents. TMCV intends to post several articles on IPAB in anticipation of the announcement of Poliquin that he has joined forces with Rep. David Roe (R-TN) to repeal IPAB.  Diane Cohen, lead counsel challenging the constitutionality of IPAB, and Michael F. Cannon, director of health policies for the Cato Institute, aptly describe IPAB as not just unconstitutional, but “anti-constitutional”.

IPAB must be repealed and abolished.  We applaud Rep. Poliquin (R-ME) and Rep. David Roe (R-TN) for their leadership on this.