Kinder files healthcare lawsuit brief with appeals court

Peter Kinder's lawsuit challenging the federal health care law will have a voice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th District.

The court on Tuesday accepted the brief by Missouri's Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, filing not as Missouri's No. 2 executive but as a regular resident of Missouri, and Samantha Hill. The lawsuit, challenges the constitutionality of the "Individual Mandate" provision of the federal health care law.

Kinder called upon the court to declare unconstitutional the provision making Missouri residents, like residents in every state, buy a federally mandated insurance policy.

"The judges in two other federal courts already declared this law to be unconstitutional," Kinder said in a news release.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel dismissed the lawsuit in April, saying those bringing it did not have standing for many of their claims and that other claims were not ripe for review.

Kinder filed the lawsuit last July in federal court in Cape Girardeau. He was pursuing it as a private citizen and was joined by several other people.

In April, Kinder called the judge's decision "extreme" and said it "slammed federal courthouse doors" in the face of Missourians.

"We were disappointed U.S. District Judge Sippel sidestepped this important issue. But we believe the Eighth Circuit can -- and should -- address this issue of great constitutional importance to every Missouri citizen. And we are hopeful they will," the lieutenant governor said in the news release sent from his office.

Kinder said defenders of the federal health care law, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, have yet to adequately address the fundamental problem Missourians have with the law -- "individual mandates" -- the law's centerpiece and the focus of the appeal filed in the 8th Circuit.

"Simply put, the Constitution does not give the federal government the power to force citizens to buy things against their will," he said.

The Cape Girardeau Republican said Missouri voters sent a clear message when they overwhelmingly approved the Health Care Freedom Act, or Proposition C, on the ballot last year.

Kinder has said implementing the mandates of the law in Missouri will cost the state $2 billion.

mkittle@semissourian.com

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