By Stephen Groves

 

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell said yesterday that Virginia will continue to fight the federal mandate that all Virginians must purchase health insurance by 2014, but the administration will also lay out a plan to implement health care reform.

 

“It is the law, I do have to implement it,” the Republican said in an interview on WTOP radio.

McDonnell recently appointed Cindi Jones to be the director of the Health Insurance Reform Initiative, which will work to implement the new health care requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. McDonnell said he is complying with the new federal requirements, but that the money needed for the programs is unsustainable.

 

McDonnell said the increase in people covered by Medicaid would cost the state $1.6 billion by 2022. The act expands Medicaid to cover more people in coming years. McDonnell’s office estimated the number of people covered by Medicaid will increase from 270,000 people to 450,000 people.

 

He estimated the state spends 20 percent of its budget on Medicaid, and that number could go as high as 30 percent as the number of people covered increases.

 

McDonnell also said Virginia would take steps apart from the federal government to change health care. He suggested reforms such as disease prevention and individual medical savings accounts to cut costs for the state.

 

“What do we do about the four or five chronic diseases that cost most of the big bills in Medicaid?” McDonnell asked.

 

But he also said that the federal government's requirement that people buy health insurance or face a fine was unconstitutional because it violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

 

“I don’t think the Commerce Clause, I don’t think the 10^th Amendment, permits the federal government to have that kind of power, because if it does, the federal government can pretty much do anything,” McDonnell said.

 

In defiance of the health care act, the Virginia General Assembly passed a law stating that Virginians are not required to buy health insurance.

 

On March 23, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed a lawsuit on behalf of Virginia against the federal government requiring people to buy health insurance by 2014 if they do not have coverage from an employer or any other program.

 

Cuccinelli filed his lawsuit moments after the federal health care act was signed into law. He is defending the Virginia law that stops the individual health insurance mandate, which McDonnell signed the next day, March 24. The federal government responded by motioning to have the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that Virginia has no legal standing to sue.

 

“I don’t think [Cuccinelli] will succeed,” said Sen. John Edwards, D- Roanoke. “I think it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

 

Edwards said the Constitution grants Congress the ability to regulate interstate commerce, which includes health insurance. But Cuccinelli and McDonnell argue that the federal government is going too far by forcing people to buy a product.

 

The Commerce Clause states that Congress has the power “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.”

 

Both sides presented their cases before U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson in Richmond at the beginning of July. The judge said he would decide if he would hear the case before the end of the month. If the case is not dismissed, Hudson will hear the case on Oct. 18.

 

The case is a key battle in the argument over the legitimacy of the health care act. Currently, 20 other states are suing the federal government in a similar case in Florida. Cuccinelli decided to file a separate lawsuit because a current Virginia law stands in direct conflict with the health care law.

 

If the case is heard, the judge will have another 30 days to make a ruling. Whichever side loses will likely file an appeal to the 4^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and eventually to the Supreme Court.

 

The health care act does not have a severability clause, which means that if Cuccinelli’s lawsuit succeeds, it would nullify the entire law.