(Image source: The Lipman Capitol Times)

BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

“A challenge to health care reform will go forward. That was the news this afternoon from a Florida federal judge who rejected a request by the U.S. Department of Justice to dismiss the suit.” (Fox Business)

In what many are calling the most serious challenge to President Obama’s health care reform yet, a federal judge in Florida is allowing a lawsuit filed by 20 states to go forward.

WPEC’s Eric Roby says this is exactly what President Obama didn’t want to happen, because the suit challenges the heart of the law.

“Florida and the 19 other states that have backed the lawsuit have two major problems with health care reform as it is right now. First is the requirement that everyone has to have health insurance or be penalized through taxes. The second questions if states should pay additional medicaid costs not covered by the feds.”


On Fox Business, host Gerri Willis makes her view pretty clear.

“The move paves the way for a legal battle involving 20 states. This is good news as the evidence continues to mount that the reform is -- reform is too expensive and fails to resolve major problems with health care like its costs.”

And not surprisingly - Florida’s Attorney General Bill McCollum -- who filed the suit just minutes after President Obama signed reform into law -- says the ruling is good news.

“This ruling is a victory for the states, small businesses and the American people. And goes on to say it confirms the significance of this lawsuit protecting against the federal health care act’s intrusion on individual liberty and limited government.”


But MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell talked to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle -- who says misinformation about health care reform has unfairly given it a bad reputation. But he says, there’s historical precedence for this kind of resistance.

TOM DASCHLE: “... this is no different than Social Security, and the Republicans campaigned to repeal Social Security the first election after it was passed, and a lot of people who said it about civil rights and about Medicare, so this is really a common phenomenon, and we are seeing it again. It won't be repealed. We will see some real progress over the course of the next year with regard to implementation, and the American people are going to change their minds.”


Finally, a Talking Points Memo article suggests this could be bad news for supporters of the law. Judge Roger Vinson - a Reagan-appointee - seems sympathetic to the states -- at least on the issue of the individual mandate requiring everyone to have insurance.

“...according to one of the foremost experts on the health care lawsuits, the ruling indicates that the judge is sympathetic to the plaintiffs.”
He quotes a Washington and Lee University professor as saying, "On the Commerce Clause argument he suggested it was going to take a lot to convince him that the government is right."


The suit now heads to a full hearing, set for December 16.
 

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