Section 1881A is M4A in waiting
About six months ago I wrote HERE how President Joe Biden could, at the stroke of a pen invoke Section 1881A of the Social Security act to instantly expand Medicare to cover every single American. My argument is sound, but admittedly lacked a few details that would have strengthened my overall case.
Since my work was published, I have read a few attempts across the internet that made me begin to think I might have been mistaken. But it turns out that is not the case. Turns out, if you only read the parts that reinforce your assumptions, as I initially did, you find your argument is destroyed or made stronger.
And so, I read, then reread the entirety of the provision within Section 1881A. I studied it, I Googled terms as needed, and discovered that I was in fact correct in my original analysis. Only it turns out I left out a very important piece of evidence.
That evidence is Section (d) which states “Emergency Declaration Defined. — For purposes of this section, the term “emergency declaration” means a declaration of a public health emergency under section 104(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980.”
In other words, a national emergency must be declared for this provision to be invoked by the president, regardless of who is in the Oval Office. And so it is, with the global pandemic called Covid-19 the Department of Health and Human Services did just that on Jan 27th, 2020. Declaring the entire nation to be under a public health emergency.
An argument could be made that even the Environmental Protection Agency could invoke the Superfund law to add an extra layer to make this happen. Admittedly, I have zero background in law. But I understand words when they are placed in a particular order.
My motivation for writing that article back in February 2021 was to speak about what kind of legacy is Joe Biden willing to leave after his time is done. The fact that we are still under a national public health emergency, and the language of Section 1881A appears to bolster this line of thinking, should make everyone who has read this far to stand up and demand President Biden invoke Section 1881A immediately.
