government
Legal challenge to federal health reform law revised
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 8, 2012
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has filed a new legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act, claiming that Oklahoma citizens cannot be forced to buy health insurance because of an amendment to the state’s Constitution.
Pruitt’s original lawsuit, filed in January 2011, fought the ACA’s constitutionality under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. That lawsuit was stayed until the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling on the law in June. Pruitt filed an amended complaint Sept. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma. As part of the revised challenge, Pruitt wants a judge to deem the ACA’s insurance mandate inoperative in Oklahoma.
In 2010, the state Legislature amended its Constitution to prohibit any rule or law forcing a person, employer or health care professional to participate in a health care system. Pruitt said Oklahoma’s amendment has not been preempted and that it protects the state’s citizens from federal law mandating that they buy health insurance. The state also claims a rule enabling the federal government to establish a health insurance exchange in any state that does not form its own exchange is unlawful (link).
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/10/08/gvbf1008.htm.
