Sen. Mcconnell to file amicus brief in support of health law challenge

Roll Call: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) plans to file an amicus brief supporting a federal lawsuit challenging the health care overhaul championed by President Barack Obama, and he invited Republican Senators on Tuesday to join him." In the brief, McConnell "asserts ... that the law's mandate that all Americans purchase health insurance is unconstitutional." A letter to Republican senators encouraging them to sign the brief states, "While I strongly believe that we should repeal the law and replace it with the types of commonsense reforms Americans support, I also strongly support the efforts of over twenty States that have challenged this law in the courts" (Drucker, 11/9).

Politico: In the brief, McConnell also "argues that if the mandate is deemed constitutional, there will no longer be any real limit on Congress' power to regulate citizens' activity" and writes that requiring Americans to buy insurance "dramatically oversteps the bounds of the Commerce [Clause] which has always been understood as a power to regulate, and not to compel, economic activity." McConnell "plans to file soon, a McConnell spokesman said" (Haberkorn, 11/9).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.