Yesterday The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room reported that thirteen states have filed lawsuits against the recently passed healthcare reform bill.  Attorneys General from Florida, South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Michigan, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, Idaho and South Dakota have all filed suits.  They have filed these suits on the basis that the bill is unconstitutional.  This is the link to the pdf file of the lawsuit.

The article states:

“The suit specifically claims that the Medicaid expansion, individual mandates to buy health insurance and several tax provisions violate various clauses in the Constitution. They say that the measures run roughshod over guarantees of state sovereignty and limitations on the scope of taxation.”

This could be a very interesting lawsuit.  One of the problems at the root of states not wanting to see this bill go into effect is the unfunded mandates.  A lot of the financial burden of this bill will fall on state budgets–Medicare and Medicaid expenses can be expected to increase very rapidly as many more people are added to the programs.  Some of the states which will be greatly affected by this bill are already in serious financial difficulty.

If I may presume to give advice to the Republicans as they deal with the passage of this bill, my advice is very simple–repeal is a good idea, but repeal and replace is a better idea.  There are many ways to make sure all Americans have access to affordable health insurance without a government takeover of the health insurance industry.  Please draft a bill of less than twenty pages that all Americans can read and understand that will help low-income people afford insurance and allow the free market to function in the healthcare insurance industry.