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Political Currents

Posted on Wednesday, 01.20.10

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Florida attorney general threatens suit to halt healthcare mandate

Attorney General Bill McCollum was accused of playing politics after he announced a plan to sue to block a provision in Congress' health reform package.

BY MARC CAPUTO

Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said Tuesday that Congress has no constitutional right to force people to buy health insurance -- and he'll sue to stop the proposal if it becomes law.

``Never before has Congress compelled Americans, under threat of government fines or taxes, to purchase an unwanted product or service simply as a condition of existing in this country,'' McCollum wrote in a legal opinion to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

McCollum said the commerce clause of the Constitution doesn't allow Congress to tax or penalize someone for not doing something -- in this case, not buying insurance. His office said it would sue the enforcing agency for the legislation, which is currently the Internal Revenue Service but could change if the legislation changes.

McCollum, a Republican running for governor, was accused of playing politics by the two Democrats running for his seat, Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres and Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach. (Emphasis added)

``Florida has an insurance crisis -- 20 percent of our citizens have no insurance,'' Gelber said. ``I have no clue what McCollum will do to solve this crisis, other than threaten to sue Congress when it tries to solve the problem.''

Asked about what he'd do to help the roughly 4 million uninsured Floridians as governor, McCollum said it was a ``political question'' and ``that's not what I'm here about today.''

``During the course of the campaign, I may well lay out something [regarding healthcare]. I may well not,'' McCollum said Tuesday. ``I don't know yet.''

McCollum said he would prefer to address health-insurance problems by offering more tax incentives, reducing government mandates or by requiring more physical education in schools to keep children healthy.

Called the ``individual mandate,'' the congressional proposal McCollum opposes is designed to make it tougher for uninsured people to show up at costly emergency rooms and stick taxpayers with the tab.

The mandate also guarantees big profits for insurance companies.

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