WASHINGTON – House Republicans filed a long-threatened lawsuit Friday against the Obama administration over unilateral actions on the health care law that they say are abuses of the president's executive authority.
The lawsuit — filed against the secretaries of Health and Human Services and Treasury — focuses on two aspects of the way the Affordable Care Act was put into effect.
The suit accuses the Obama administration of unlawfully postponing a requirement that larger employers offer health coverage to their full-time employees or pay penalties.
The suit also challenges what it says is President Obama's unlawful giveaway of roughly $175 billion to insurance companies under the law.
The Congressional Budget Office says the administration will pay that amount to companies over the next 10 years. The lawsuit argues that it is an unlawful transfer of funds.
That issue involves subsidies known as cost-sharing reductions, which the federal government pays to insurers on behalf of people whose incomes range from the poverty threshold to 2.5 times the poverty threshold.
If the lawsuit is successful, poor people would not lose their health care; insurance companies would still be required to provide coverage.
House Republicans struggled to find a law firm willing to take their case. This week, Boehner hired Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University.
