In the latest clash between states and the federal government over the Affordable Care Act, a District Court judge in Virginia has denied the federal government's motion to drop a lawsuit filed by Virginia's attorney general against the Department of Health and Human Services.
In the suit, Virginia is challenging the right of the federal government to require that most Americans purchase health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty. The mandate comes as part of the new healthcare reform law, the Affordable Care Act.
Virginia, along with other states, says Congress has no right to require health insurance. Yet those in favor of the measure defend it is well within the rights of Congress.
Defenders of the healthcare reform measures claim that 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.
AARP officials have called the states' challenges "a scare tactic and unfounded."
In an Aug. 2 memorandum, Virginia U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson said he would allow the case to go forward because it raises "a host of complex Constitutional issues" that neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor any circuit court of appeals has addressed.
So far, some 20 states have joined in civil suits challenging the federal mandate.
In addition, some states are trying to use state laws to override the federal mandate.
According to the American Legislative Exchange Council, which opposes the Affordable Care Act, laws have been passed in Virginia, Idaho, Arizona, Georgia and Louisiana, with Constitutional amendments expected to appear on the November ballot in Oklahoma, Arizona and Florida. Citizen initiatives are also underway in Colorado and Mississippi.
The White House maintains that civil challenges will not succeed. In an August blog posting, Stephanie Cutter, Assistant to the President for Special Projects, said, "We saw this with the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act – Constitutional challenges were brought to all three of these monumental pieces of legislation, and all of those challenges failed. So too will the challenge to health reform."