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Last updated on Monday, June 11, 2018
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill today praised a decision announced last week by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to refrain from defending in court significant portions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The decision, Attorney General Hill said, demonstrates the strength of a complaint filed earlier this year by Indiana and 19 other states asserting the ACA to be unconstitutional.
The Feb. 26 complaint (Texas, Wisconsin et al v. U.S. et al) followed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court case NFIB v. Sebelius, in which the Court narrowly upheld the core provision of the ACA -- the individual mandate -- as a "tax." Congress, however, later repealed this tax while leaving the mandate in place. Since the Supreme Court already had held that Congress had no authority to impose such a mandate on Americans absent invoking its taxing authority, the only logical conclusion is that the ACA is therefore unconstitutional.
In a letter to Congress last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions explained the DOJ's rationale for accepting many of the arguments put forth by Indiana and the other states.
The elimination of the ACA altogether would open the door to healthcare policy built on a stronger legal foundation, Attorney General Hill said.
"From the beginning, the Affordable Care Act has represented federal overreach," Attorney General Hill said. "Rather than legislating a one-size-fits-all mandate imposed nationwide, Congress should allow Indiana and all other states to exercise freedom in the ways they deal with the issue of health care for their own citizens."
Here is a copy of the multistate lawsuit that Indiana joined in February.
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