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Kansas And Missouri Join States Arguing No Tax Penalty, No Affordable Care Act

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, a plastic surgeon from Johnson County, supports the state's latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Kansas and several other states say Congress' elimination of of tax penalties on people who don't obtain insurance effectively nullifies Obamacare.
Jim McLean
/
Kansas News Service, File Photo
Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, a plastic surgeon from Johnson County, supports the state's latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Kansas and several other states say Congress' elimination of of tax penalties on people who don't obtain insurance effectively nullifies Obamacare.
Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, a plastic surgeon from Johnson County, supports the state's latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Kansas and several other states say Congress' elimination of of tax penalties on people who don't obtain insurance effectively nullifies Obamacare.
Credit Jim McLean / Kansas News Service, File Photo
/
Kansas News Service, File Photo
Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, a plastic surgeon from Johnson County, supports the state's latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Kansas and several other states say Congress' elimination of of tax penalties on people who don't obtain insurance effectively nullifies Obamacare.

Missouri and Kansas have joined 18 other states in seeking to have the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional following Congress’ repeal last year of the tax penalty associated with the individual mandate.

In a lawsuit filed late Monday in federal court in Texas, the coalition of 20 mostly red states claimed that the elimination of the tax penalty for those who don’t buy health insurance renders the entire health care law unconstitutional.

In announcing that Missouri had joined the lawsuit, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said in a statement that the Affordable Care Act “was never constitutional.”

“My office will continue to fight to take health care choices out of the hands of D.C. bureaucrats and put them in the hands of families and physicians,” Hawley said.

Hawley’s statement that the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was never constitutional flies in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 decision finding that the mandate was constitutional under Congress’ power to levy taxes.

The 20 suing states are now citing that same decision to argue that with the tax penalty eliminated, the mandate — and with it the entire law — should be struck down.

“The U.S. Supreme Court already admitted that an individual mandate without a tax penalty is unconstitutional,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “With no remaining legitimate basis for the law, it is time that Americans are finally free from the stranglehold of Obamacare, once and for all.”

Paxton and Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel are leading the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Fort Worth.

The Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, the most controversial part of Obamacare, was meant to force younger and healthier people to get coverage to help keep premiums low.

Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, who assumed office last month after Sam Brownback took a job with the Trump administration as U.S. ambassador of religious freedom, said he supports the legal challenge.

In a statement released by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Colyer, a plastic surgeon, said, “The legal and policy failures of Obamacare are well known, and I am pleased that Kansas is joining this new effort to expose them.”

The Republican-led Congress eliminated the requirement that individuals had to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty as part of the tax overhaul it passed in December on a strictly party-line vote. But the mandate that people have health insurance technically remained in place.

In addition to Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin, the other states joining the suit are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.

All but eight of those 20 states have opted not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

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Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor for KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org

Copyright 2018 KMUW | NPR for Wichita

Dan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and moved to Kansas City with his family when he was eight years old. He majored in philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis and holds law and journalism degrees from Boston University. He has been an avid public radio listener for as long as he can remember – which these days isn’t very long… Dan has been a two-time finalist in The Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, and has won multiple regional awards for his legal and health care coverage. Dan doesn't have any hobbies as such, but devours one to three books a week, assiduously works The New York Times Crossword puzzle Thursdays through Sundays and, for physical exercise, tries to get in a couple of rounds of racquetball per week.
Dan Margolies
In a long and varied journalism career, Dan has worked as a business reporter for the Kansas City Business Journal, The Kansas City Star and Reuters. In a previous life, he was a lawyer. He has also worked as a media insurance underwriter and project development director for a small video production firm.