Fighting the Feds on Health Care Reform

Should New Hampshire fight last year’s federal health care reform?

Most state senators and representatives think so. The N.H. House and Senate have both passed bills to get state Attorney General Michael Delaney to join a multi-state lawsuit fighting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which President Obama signed into law in March 2010. So far, more than two dozen other states have joined the lawsuit, which challenges the constitutionality of the federal law.

The difference between the House and Senate’s persuasive approaches is the difference between “must” and “should.”

The House Approach

House Bill 89, sponsored by Rep. Kenneth Weyler (R-Kingston), is short and to-the-point: “The attorney general shall, no later than July 1, 2011, move to join the state of New Hampshire as a plaintiff in the lawsuit pending in federal court captioned State of Florida et al. v. United States Department of Health and Human Services et al.”

Weyler’s bill passed two House committees (including a new committee on constitutional review) and two floor votes with a veto-proof majority.

The Senate Approach

Sponsored by Sen. Tom DeBlois (R-Manchester) and 16 of his Senate colleagues, Senate Bill 148 takes a slightly different tack. It makes more of a suggestion that Delaney “should, as soon as practicable, join the lawsuit …”

It also undermines a key provision of the federal health care reform approach, asserting that no resident of New Hampshire can be required to obtain health insurance, nor be fined for going without coverage. That essentially would void the applicability of the federal mandate that individuals must have insurance (which is scheduled to be in place in 2014 at the earliest).

Having passed the Senate with a veto-proof majority, SB 148 will get its second public hearing of the session, today in the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee.

The Debate

Democratic critics of the House measure have called it a waste of time and money, as well as an unconstitutional encroachment of the Legislature into executive branch functions.

If passed, Delaney says he would fight the law in state court. And that brings up an interesting note: The final House budget bill, which is now being tweaked in the Senate, included a provision preventing the N.H. Department of Justice from taking any legal action against the state Legislature.

Even if passed, either law may be rendered moot depending on the final outcome of pending federal court challenges. So far, two federal district courts have upheld the health care reform law and two district courts have struck part or all of the law.

Q&A

What do you think about states fighting the federal insurance mandate: wasted time or principled stands?

Share your thought using the comments box below!

>> Thursday, April 14, 10:00 a.m., House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee public hearings on SB 148 and other legislation (Legislative Office Building, Room 302).

This Daily Dispatch was written by Michael McCord, with contributions from Hilary Niles.