Tenn. lawmakers seek to block health care law

• Measure would face formidable legal questions
• Proposal also might make it illegal for state contractors to buy insurance on exchange
• More than 36%2C000 Tennesseans have signed up for coverage under Obamacare

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Republican lawmakers are taking on the Affordable Care Act with a new bill that would bar state and local governments — and possibly also companies that do business with them — from buying health insurance through the federal website.

State Sen. Mae Beavers and three House Republicans released a bill Wednesday designed to stop President Barack Obama's health care reform law by discouraging use of its health insurance exchange, healthcare.gov.

The bill, if it were enacted, would be sure to face formidable legal questions. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the core of the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, and past attempts to stop the health care law in Tennessee have run aground because of the well-established constitutional principle that state laws cannot trump federal laws.

The bill would make it illegal for Tennessee and local officials to "assist in implementing" the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare." It also would prohibit the state, local governments and educational institutions from buying coverage for their employees through the website.

The measure also might make it illegal for state contractors to buy insurance on the exchange, even for their own employees.

State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver said the measure would form "a firewall" around Tennessee, keeping out the Affordable Care Act.

Similar legislation is under consideration in South Carolina and Georgia, Beavers said.

"It's quite evident the federal government is wanting a monopoly on insurance coverage in this country," the Mount Juliet Republican said. "They've shown already that they're not capable of doing it."

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said through a spokesman that he was aware of the legislation but hasn't "had a chance to review its impact and how it would work."

The bill would be the latest in a long line of measures filed in the Tennessee legislature taking aim at the health care law.

So far, more than 36,000 Tennesseans have signed up for coverage under the exchanges. More than 2 million people nationwide had enrolled through, according to the most recent statistics.

Beavers said she's not sure how the legislation would affect people who have already signed up for coverage under the exchanges.

"That remains to be seen," she said.

The measure not only would bar state and local officials from enforcing the Affordable Care Act. It would prohibit them from participating in it as well.

That could cause immediate problems for TennCare, the state's Medicaid program, which has been using healthcare.gov to sign up new enrollees until a new state-run website is completed.

The bill also extends to state contractors, although there is some ambiguity about the extent to which private companies would be affected.

Beavers told reporters Wednesday that no company with a contract with the state could offer insurance from healthcare.gov. But Jim Brown, state director for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said he interpreted the measure as saying only that state agencies could not hire contractors to take actions they are prohibited from doing.

State Rep. JoAnne Favors, a retired nurse who is certified to help customers navigate the federal law's marketplaces, said that the legislation is embarrassing to the state and that she believes Tennessee's attorney general would find it to be unconstitutional.

"It's wasting a lot of energy and time for the legislators to have to deal with something so egregious," said the Chattanooga Democrat. "It's just causing our state to look so silly."

Beavers said she believes this latest measure is on sure legal ground. She said "anti-commandeering laws" and Supreme Court rulings, including one in a 1997 case involving gun control, bar the federal government from making states enforce their laws.

"The answer is going to be the individual states, enough of them enacting language (or) something like this, to be able to make it fail," she said.

Contributing: The Associated Press