Idaho, 12 other states sue federal government over new health law

Idaho joined with 12 other states in suing the federal government Tuesday immediately after President Obama signed the new health-care bill into law.

Thirteen Republican state attorneys general sued to block the law, calling it unconstitutional. Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said the lawsuit was needed to "stop this insanity."

"The sovereignty of the state of Idaho is very important to us," Otter said in an televised interview on Fox News.

The lawsuit says the health care reform law infringes on the sovereignty of the states by imposing onerous new operating rules that they must follow, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said.

The law requires Idaho to spend billions of additional dollars without providing funds or resources to the state to help subsidize the cost of implementation of the law, he said. This burden comes at a time when Idaho faces severe budget cuts to offset shortfalls in an already-strained budget, Wasden said.

“Our complaint alleges the new law infringes upon the constitutional rights of Idahoans and residents of the other states by mandating all citizens and legal residents have qualifying health care coverage or pay a tax penalty,” Wasden said.

“The law exceeds the powers of the United States under Article I of the Constitution and violates the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution," he said. "Additionally, the tax penalty required under the law constitutes an unlawful direct tax in violation of Article I, sections 2 and 9 of the Constitution."

Under the new law, Idaho will be required to vastly broaden its Medicaid eligibility standards to accommodate upwards of 50 percent more enrollees, many of whom would be required to enroll or face a tax penalty, Wasden said.

Wasden was required to sue under the Idaho Health Freedom Act, which passed the Legislature this session and was signed into law by Otter last week.

“Legal scholars keep saying this lawsuit is futile ‘if the law is constitutional,’" the governor said in a statement. "Well, we contend the federal government has overstepped its authority with this law, and that it’s our duty to challenge it.”

The Idaho Health Freedom Act could cost the state an estimated $100,000, but the Legislature has not provided that money in the attorney general's budget. Wasden must either pay Idaho's legal expenses from his budget - $15.7 million budget for fiscal 2011, down 9 percent from this year - or tap the state's Constitutional Defense Fund for the money.

The Legislature created the constitutional fund in 1995 and gave it $1 million. The fund is overseen by a council consisting of Otter, House Speaker Lawerence Denney, Senate Pro Tem Bob Geddes and Wasden.

Today, the fund has $240,321.61. But some of that money could be allocated already. The House passed House Concurrent Resolution 58 earlier this session asking the council to investigate the feasibility of the state taking control and management of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands. A Senate committee approved that resolution Monday, sending it to the full Senate.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Pensacola, Fla. Other states joining the lawsuit are South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Louisiana, Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington and South Dakota. The defendants are the federal departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor.