New Okla. challenge to health law zeros in on tax penalties and subsidies

In a new legal challenge, the state's attorney general is asking a federal court to rule that the law's requirement that most people purchase insurance or face a tax penalty is inoperative in his state.

The Wall Street Journal: Oklahoma Challenges Health Law In New Suit
Oklahoma's attorney general on Wednesday filed a fresh legal challenge to the federal health-overhaul law, zeroing in on penalties that employers in the state would face if they didn't offer affordable health coverage to their workers. ... The new complaint filed by Oklahoma faces long odds. It focuses on the law's distribution of tax credits for low-income Americans to purchase insurance (Radnofsky, 9/19).

Bloomberg: Oklahoma Attorney General Revises Health-Care Lawsuit 
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who initially filed a legal challenge to Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in January 2011, asked in a revised complaint yesterday for a federal judge to rule that the part of the law mandating people purchase insurance or face a tax penalty is inoperative in his state. Oklahoma amended its constitution by popular vote in November 2010, eight months after Obama signed the health care law. The amendment prohibited any rule or law forcing a person, employer or health care provider to participate in a health care system (Harris, 9/20).

Politico Pro: Okla. Targets Federal Exchange Subsidies
Oklahoma is challenging an IRS rule allowing federal-run health insurance exchanges to provide subsidies to help individuals purchase coverage. Critics of the Affordable Care Act have spent the summer trying to build a legal case against the IRS rule, and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt appears to the be first to bring it to federal court. Pruitt, who had a standing lawsuit in federal court against the ACA's individual mandate, had been asked by the court to either drop the case or change his argument in light of the June Supreme Court decision upholding the law (Millman, 9/19).