Va. Sets Stage for Court Battle Over Federal Power to Require Health Insurance
In a move intended to block key provisions of proposed national health care reform legislation, the Democrat-controlled state senate of Virginia yesterday approved measures that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance.
The legislation is also expected to be approved in the state’s Republican-controlled House of Delegates, the Washington Post reports.
Proponents of the Virginia legislation say it is unconstitutional for the nation’s Democrat-controlled Congress to require citizens to purchase anything, including health insurance, as it is considering doing in proposed national legislation.
And Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, who is a Republican, says the state legislation could help Virginia establish standing for intervention in litigation against the federal government, if Congress enacts health care reform.
But others contend the state law prohibiting required purchase of health insurance, if enacted, would be pre-empted by federal law to the contrary.
“This would not be worth the paper it’s written on, and everybody knows it,” Sen. Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax) tells the Post. “Everybody knows this bill is nothing more than a brochure bill.”
Lawmakers in many other states also are considering measures in opposition to the national health care plan, the newspaper notes.
