INDIANAPOLIS | The state of Indiana on Friday formally joined a multistate lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new federal health insurance reform law.
Attorney General Greg Zoeller said an amended complaint was filed Friday in Florida federal court adding Indiana to the 19 other states seeking to have the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ruled unconstitutional.
The suit claims that the law's "individual mandate," which requires every American to purchase health insurance or pay a fine, violates the constitution by regulating inactivity -- the act of not buying insurance -- and taxes Americans just for being alive. The plaintiffs also claim the new law infringes on state sovereignty by taking away state authority to regulate insurance companies, mandating that states pay for an expanded Medicaid program and forcing states to set up insurance exchanges.
"There is much public debate on whether the new federal health care law is good public policy and how much it will cost states. That is not the subject of this lawsuit," Zoeller said. "My only concern is whether the federal government has the authority it claims under the United States Constitution, a question rightly brought before the courts."
"The people of Indiana did not elect me to simply trust the federal government," he said.
The first hearing on the multistate lawsuit is scheduled for Sept.14 in Florida.
Zoeller said he will only use lawyers from his office for Indiana's share of the work on the lawsuit so taxpayers do not have to pay for outside counsel.