Jefferson City, MO – The Republican-dominated Missouri House has passed a non-binding resolution urging state officials to join a multistate lawsuit challenging the federal health care overhaul and calling on Congress to repeal the law.
The House approved the resolution Tuesday on a vote of 115-46.
The measure calls on Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster to join with other states in suing over the federal health care law passed last year, or to file a separate suit.
The measure also calls on Koster to defend the law approved by Missouri voters last summer that bars the government from requiring people to buy health insurance or penalizing them for not doing so.
House Republican Ward Franz, of West Plains, is the sponsor of the resolution. He says many Missourians oppose the federal health care overhaul.
"Now, hopefully the (Missouri) Senate will pass their own version," says Franz. "If the Senate passes it, I would think he'd have to listen, especially after the way the voters came out...I would think that that would get his attention."
A spokesperson for Attorney General Koster says he is aware of the vote in the Missouri House and is "monitoring the situation in both chambers."
Critics of the resolution say the federal law will improve the nation's health care.