Judge Dismisses Mississippi Health Insurance Challenge

Federal District Judge Keith Starrett has ruled that Mississippi governor Phil Bryant, along with other residents of Mississippi, were “premature” in their legal challenge to the section of the affordable care act that requires people to buy health care insurance. He also said that the governor and another of the members of the group suing the government have been eliminated as plaintiffs, because, as people who already have health insurance, they are unaffected by the law.

In an order signed nearly a month ago, Starrett said that the privacy claims of the two remaining plaintiffs would have to be brought later, after the rules involving disclosure and protection of personal information have been worked out. Without those rules in place, he wrote, the plaintiffs’ privacy claims are “…not ripe for judicial resolution.”

According to Mississippi state Senator Chris McDaniel (R-Ellisvile), an attorney for the plaintiffs, they will either appeal the ruling from Judge Starrett or file the suit again at a later date, but either way, he said, “They will keep fighting.”

We are left wondering why the Senator and Governor are not governing their state, instead of challenging legislation that has already been found to be constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States.