On February 2nd, 2010 the North Carolina House of Representatives passed the “NC Healthcare Protection Act” (HB 2) by a vote of 66 to 50. The legislation protects North Carolina citizens from the federal mandate to buy health insurance set forth by the “Patient Protection and Affordability Act.” It also calls for North Carolina to join other states in lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the federal healthcare legislation.
This comes on the heels of U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling that the federal healthcare bill is unconstitutional. In essence, Judge Vinson’s ruling asserted that Congress does not have the constitutional authority to mandate that individual citizens purchase health insurance.
Now that the bill has passed the House it will go to the Senate for consideration. Due to the Republican majority in the Senate, the bill is likely to pass there as well.
