Texas Doctor Sues U.S. Over Obamacare

From Bloomberg.com (May 7):

A Texas doctor sued the U.S. over President Barack Obama’s health-care reforms on claims the U.S. Supreme Court overlooked when it upheld the Affordable Care Act last year.

Steven Hotze of Houston claims the law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, violates the U.S. Constitution’s origination and takings clauses, which weren’t part of arguments before the Supreme Court. The high court upheld the act by a 5-to-4 vote.

Hotze’s suit, filed today in federal court in Houston, targets the “shared responsibility payment” business owners will be required to pay the U.S. under the act if they choose not to provide government-approved minimum health coverage for their workers. That penalty kicks in on Jan. 1.

“Obamacare has become a redistribution of wealth scheme, where people are compelled to pay money to other people,” Hotze’s lawyer, Andy Schlafly, said in a telephone interview. “The government isn’t allowed to order one private party, a business owner, to pay money to another private party, an insurance company.” [read more]

Good for this doctor. More doctors should do this. It is a wealth redistribution scheme and a power trip.

The article had to admit the doctor is president of Conservative Republicans of Texas like that mattered. Which it doesn’t. The law is unconstitutional and it doesn’t matter who fights it. If the doctor had been a democrat would Bloomberg.com mentioned that? Probably not.