Bill to Prevent Health Care Law Passage in Oklahoma Heads to House

A bill to prevent the federal health care law from taking effect in Oklahoma could likely be passed by the House later this week.

Monday, April 12th 2010, 3:59 pm

By: News 9


By Dave Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A bill to prevent the federal health care law from taking effect in Oklahoma could likely be passed by the House later this week. If it passes and is signed into law, it will force Attorney General Drew Edmondson to join his colleagues as a plaintiff in that lawsuit.

After weeks of dissecting and perusing the massive health care law, Attorney General Drew Edmondson said Friday he will not sue the feds over the measure unless the legislature decided otherwise.

"If the legislature were to enact that provision into law, we would accept this as a directive," Edmondson said.

But lawmakers were already moving forward. In February, state senators passed Senate Joint Resolution 64 that directs the attorney general to file a lawsuit to prevent the provisions of federal health care legislation from taking effect.

"I think our solution is to simply say and there's constitutional authority that we talked to that says this is a real case," Senate Pro Tem Glen Coffee (R) said.

Coffee believes the bill is unconstitutional because it mandates everyone buy health insurance. He co-authored the bill along with House Speaker Chris Benge.

"I still believe that federal health care is going to be destructive to the state of Oklahoma, it's going to be destructive to the country," Benge said.

Benge is equally concerned about the cost as well as constitutionality, even though state and federal agencies claimed health care reform will save the state millions of dollars.

"Their number is not taking into consideration that businesses and individuals are going to have to pay and they're assuming the federal government will be right in their estimates," Benge said.

Both Coffee and Benge believe they have bipartisan support for this bill.

The bill could come up for a vote in the House as early as this week.

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