In a new twist in the ongoing battle over the right of the federal government to mandate health insurance, a Virginia District Court has said it needs more time to decide whether Virginia should be allowed to move forward with challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.
Kenneth Cuccinelli, Virginia's attorney general, had filed suit against Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius arguing that Congress does not have a right to require that Americans purchase health insurance by 2014.
In an Aug. 2 memorandum of opinion, the Virginia court denied the federal government's earlier motion to dismiss Virginia's challenge.
Virginia U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson said the case raises "a host of complex Constitutional issues" that come down to whether Congress has the power to regulate – and tax – a citizen's decision not to participate in interstate commerce.
Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor any circuit court of appeals has addressed this issue, Hudson said.
Virginia is not the only state that has challenged the mandated health insurance measures in the healthcare reform law. Since late last year, some 20 states have joined in civil suits challenging the measures.
Framers of the Affordable Care Act say healthcare insurance is commerce and falls under Congress' jurisdiction.
AARP officials have called the states' challenges "a scare tactic and unfounded."
Defenders of the healthcare reform measures claim without expanding the pool of healthy individuals through mandated coverage, the cost for insuring those with pre-existing conditions would be prohibitive for health insurance companies.