Chuck DeVore & Arlene Wohlgemuth Of Texas Public Policy Foundation Discuss Texas Policy [AUDIO]

On the Tuesday edition of The Chad Hasty Show, Chuck DeVore and Arlene Wohlgemuth of the Texas Public Policy Foundation spoke with Chad Hasty about the latest developments in Texas policy.

Earlier today, a federal court ruled that several of the Obamacare Federal Exchange subsidies were illegal. Wohlgemuth said that this recent ruling is just another blow to the "ill-conceived and poorly written" Obamacare mandate. She added that, while the health care system is in need of reform, Obamacare is not the answer. Instead, she suggested patients can go back to using health savings accounts instead, and explained the benefits of those accounts.

Wohlgemuth: "The reason that [health saving accounts] work and the ACA doesn't work is our system has devolved into one where the patient has no financial interest in saving money, and neither does the health care provider. Instead of having a financial relationship with your doctor, you have a financial relationship with your employer, who has a financial relationship with the insurance company, who has a financial relationship with the doctor. And so, neither the purchaser nor the provider have an interest in holding down costs. And that's what health savings accounts do is restore that relationship."

DeVore and Wohlgemuth also discussed ways to decrease spending in the state budget. One option DeVore discussed would be the STAR fund, or sales tax reduction fund, which would take the money from eliminated and reduced state programs, and give that money back to the state in order to offset any sales tax reductions. DeVore said that it's important we start looking at cutting spending now, since the legislature is already nearing the state's spending limit.

DeVore: "...we are right up against the state spending limit. And of course, what you're seeing then is lawmakers resorting to kind of this ledger domain where they shift the spending off book so it doesn't have to count against that spending limit. Well, that shows you that we're already spending up against the stops. As as Arlene said...when you do that, when you constantly spend as much money as the state of Texas and their taxpayers are about to send to government, you are running the high risk, the grave danger off that the economy goes down just a little bit, then all of a sudden you've run out of money because you've grown government so that you're spending all the money when times are good. And we don't want to do that."

For more information on the Texas Public Policy Foundation, visit their website at texaspolicy.com. Listen to the complete interview with Chuck DeVore and Arlene Wohlgemuth here: