Republicans sue Obama administration over health care reforms

Washington, Nov 22: The Republican majority in the US House of Representatives filed suit against the administration of Barack Obama over the use of executive orders to implement the Affordable Care Act (ACA) - also known as Obamacare - after Congress approved the legislation in 2010.

The lawsuit brought against Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew Friday charged the Obama administration with repeatedly abusing its power by using executive action as a substitute for legislation, reported Xinhua.

Specifically, it cites Obama's decision to issue an executive order in June 2013 to postpone the requirement that employers offer their employees health care coverage under the ACA.

The White House made another modification seven months later to the effect that employers with 50 to 99 full-time employees do not have to offer them health insurance until the year 2016.

The other aspect of the lawsuit refers to what it considers the illegal transfer of $175 billion to health insurance companies to help low-income citizens get health insurance.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the government will pay $3 billion to insurance companies in fiscal year 2014 and is budgeted to pay a total of $175 billion over the next 10 years under the programme of shared costs, with funds that have not been authorised by Congress.

The lawsuit came the day after President Obama made another executive decision in temporarily legalising five million undocumented immigrants.

"Time after time, the president has chosen to ignore the will of the American people and re-write federal law on his own without a vote of Congress. That's not the way our system of government was designed to work," House Speaker John Boehner said.

IANS