Lawmakers vow to contest health care overhaul

By TIM TALLEY

OKLAHOMA CITY

Leading Republican lawmakers vowed Tuesday to challenge the new federal health care overhaul by bypassing the state attorney general and attacking it through the Legislature.

House Speaker Chris Benge and Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee announced plans to challenge the health care law's constitutionality less than two weeks after Democratic Attorney General Drew Edmondson said he would take no action because his staff believes a legal challenge would have little chance of success.

Benge and Coffee also said they do not want Edmondson involved in the case and are abandoning a legislative resolution passed by the Senate and pending in the House that would require him to file a legal challenge. They said they do not believe the attorney general would do an adequate job.

"Why would we enlist the help of an attorney who doesn't believe in our case?" said Coffee, R-Oklahoma City.

"To me, he's given every indication that he's not really committed to seeing this thing through," said Benge, R-Tulsa.

A resolution awaiting final action in the GOP-controlled Legislature authorizes House and Senate leaders to sue Congress, President Barack Obama and other federal officials to block enforcement of the law. It would also allow Oklahomans to opt-out of mandated health insurance.

Edmondson, who is stepping down as the state's top law enforcement officer after 16 years to seek the Democratic nomination for governor, has accused legislative leaders of playing politics with the health care issue.

"This latest move is within their discretion but further indicates that this is more about politics than policy, more sound bite than substance," Edmondson said.

Benge and Coffee denied their motives were political. They said the law is flawed and will add hundreds of millions of dollars in additional Medicaid and other health care costs to the state. Among other things, the new law requires citizens to obtain health insurance coverage.

"It's certainly unprecedented," Coffee said. "There is a strong constitutional challenge to that bill."

"The high taxes required in the law will be a burden that we cannot afford," Benge said. "We have to challenge this law."

Edmondson announced on April 9 he would not challenge the health care law's constitutionality after legal research by 17 assistant attorneys general indicated the chances of winning "were slim to none" and that scarce state resources would be wasted in the effort.

But the attorney general said he would add the state to a federal lawsuit challenging the health care law filed in Florida last month if ordered to by state lawmakers. The attorneys general and governors of 19 states have decided to join the lawsuit.

The states claim the federal government cannot force citizens to buy health coverage. They also argue the federal government is violating the Constitution by forcing a mandate on the states without providing money to pay for it.

The Oklahoma attorney general is the only state official authorized to file a lawsuit on behalf of the state. Benge and Coffee will take legal action in their official capacities and the courts will eventually have to decide if they have legal standing to sue, said a spokeswoman for Benge, Jennifer Monies.

Benge and Coffee said they may join the Florida lawsuit and will work to keep legal costs down by using House and Senate legal staff and encouraging attorneys, including lawyers in the Legislature, to volunteer their services.