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Paxton-led coalition in pursuit of Obamacare repeal seeks injunction by year's end

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 19 other states sued in February, challenging the constitutionality of the law. The coalition is now asking for a preliminary injunction.

AUSTIN — Attorney General Ken Paxton is urging a federal court to eliminate Affordable Care Act regulations in Texas before the end of the year.

Paxton and Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel are leading a 20-state coalition that sued in February, challenging the constitutionality of the law. On Thursday, the coalition asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to grant a preliminary injunction by Jan. 1, 2019.

Rolling back the health care law's requirements "will prevent unlawful federal regulation of healthcare markets and re-establish state sovereignty," the coalition wrote.

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Congress eliminated the tax penalty for not having health insurance in its tax overhaul, which President Donald Trump signed into law in December. The coalition argues that the move renders the entire law unconstitutional because a majority of Supreme Court justices agreed in 2012 that the individual mandate would be unconstitutional without the tax penalty.

"From the outset, Obamacare's individual mandate caused countless Americans to purchase insurance they don't need or enroll in programs that put a tremendous financial burden on Texas and other states," Paxton said in a news release Thursday. "The sooner Obamacare is enjoined, the better, so that states and individuals can prepare to operate freely again without the stranglehold of a failed Obama-era social experiment."

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The coalition said the part of the law requiring employers to provide health insurance cost Texas $473.2 million between 2011 and 2017.

"Indeed, in fiscal year 2017 alone Texas paid $19.2 million to cover newly eligible dependent children and $27.2 million to provide new, no-cost-share coverage for certain preventative care services," the motion read.

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Paxton and Schimel also wrote in their motion that under the Affordable Care Act, states can't regulate insurance markets as they see fit. Texas had to eliminate "high-risk pools" under the law, which insurance companies previously used to separate clients with pre-existing conditions from the rest of the population.

When insurance companies used high-risk pools, people with pre-existing conditions said they struggled to get the health care they needed.

Kelli Bennett of Flower Mound, who has Type 1 diabetes, said she was forced into a high-risk pool after her diagnosis. Before the law was enacted, her health insurance would cover just enough insulin to make life tolerable. She told The Dallas Morning News last May that she worried about returning to a pre-Obamacare world in which she would be forced back into a high-risk pool.

"It puts us exactly where we were before," she said. "People with pre-existing conditions are being isolated and treated differently. ... We will only be able to purchase policies specifically designed for sick people, protecting the insurance company from those with high-cost health conditions."

The attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia joined Paxton and Schimel in the motion, along with the governors of Maine and Mississippi.