One of the 27 states that's told the federal government it refuses to set up a health insurance marketplace is Oklahoma. The state's attorney general is suing the government, alleging that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is being illegally enforced.
And according to recent reports, portions of the lawsuit can move forward.
A federal judge, Ronald White of Muskogee, Okla., has ruled that the state's attorney general Scott Pruitt can proceed with the suit that argues against the ACA and how its being implemented. Attorneys for the federal government contended that Pruitt didn't have grounds to sue, but White struck down the government's contention.
"The court must accept as true all material allegations of the complaint, and must construe the complaint in favor of the complaining party," White stated in his ruling.
However, there were contentions made by Pruitt that White dismissed, including that Congress lacked the constitutional authority to require that large companies make employee benefits available to their workers, as noted by health insurance news outlet Benefits Pro. Additionally, White also threw out the contention that Oklahoma had the legal capacity to fight off regulations implemented by the Internal Revenue Service through the Administrative Procedure Act.
"The court rejected the federal government's argument that Oklahoma lacked standing to challenge the law, allowing us to proceed with this pivotal case," said Pruitt. "We're optimistic the court will recognize what states have known for months – that the IRS disregarded the law by making the large employer mandate effective in Oklahoma or in any of the … other states without a state health care exchange."
Opponents of the ACA contend that the unintended consequences of the health reform law have already been apparent. According to analysis performed by NBC News, of the 20 small businesses contacted, asking executives how the ACA had impacted their companies, many stated that they were cutting workers' hours back because of the mandate, even though the provision has been delayed until 2015.
