Burgess to Newsmax: 'Other Shoes to Drop' on Obamacare

Rep. Michael Burgess told Newsmax on Tuesday that “there are clearly other shoes to drop” as the deadline nears for the implementation of Obamacare.

“I don’t think it’s the end of it,” the Texas Republican said, referring to the Obama administration’s decision to delay until 2015 a requirement that employers offer health insurance or else face stiff penalties.

“I just cannot believe that they’re not having meetings and discussions and email exchanges on contingency plans,” Burgess told Newsmax in an exclusive interview. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “has been pretty refractive in divulging any of that information to Congress,” he said.

“We saw today that they’re clearly planning to narrow the scope. We just don’t at this point know how much or what other parts are at risk.”

Under Obamacare, companies with 50 or more workers must provide affordable coverage to their full-time employees or risk escalating tax penalties if just one worker ends up getting government-subsidized insurance.

The rule was expected to take effect on Jan. 1 but was delayed until 2015, after next year’s congressional elections.

Burgess, an obstetrician, questioned whether the White House could delay such a critical portion of Obamacare without congressional approval.

“We all know this thing has problems,” he told Newsmax. “Here they are, trying to dig out from a problem that they have caused — and I’m not sure if they can do it, purely as an administrative function. You actually might need legislative action to go with it.”

Long an Obamacare critic, Burgess added: “This whole thing is bad, from start to finish. I’ve never have been able to get the Secretary of Health and Human Services to admit that they’re having discussions on contingency plans, but you know that they are.

“Here is one of the contingencies that they thought they should deal with, lest it become a bad political liability going into next year, which is an election year. They backed off.”