Wisconsin is out of all Obamacare lawsuits after federal court rules in last case

Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Gov. Tony Evers leaves the assembly chamber following his budget address to a joint session of the legislature February 28 at the Capitol in Madison.

MADISON - A federal appeals court dropped Wisconsin Tuesday from a lawsuit over Obamacare, allowing Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul to secure one of their campaign goals.

The ruling was the latest in a string of court decisions allowing Wisconsin to get out of lawsuits over Obamacare, widely known as the Affordable Care Act. Tuesday's ruling was the last one Evers and Kaul needed to get Wisconsin out of all litigation on the issue.

Obamacare will continue to face legal challenges because other states continue to fight it. But Evers and Kaul can say they fulfilled a pledge to end Wisconsin's participation in the litigation.

"People in Wisconsin believe in the protections guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act," Evers said in a statement. "That’s why I promised to stop spending Wisconsin taxpayer dollars on a lawsuit that would kick thousands of Wisconsinites off their healthcare and put the 2.4 million Wisconsinites who have a pre-existing condition at risk."

After Evers and Kaul won their elections, but before they were sworn in, Republican legislators approved a law to prevent them from getting out of Obamacare cases and other lawsuits.

That law and others passed during the lame-duck session were challenged in court. Allies of Evers and Kaul won early rounds in that legal fight, clearing the way for Kaul to file motions in the Obamacare lawsuits seeking to dismiss Wisconsin from those cases.

Federal courts in recent weeks agreed to Kaul's request and he secured the last one he needed Tuesday from the U.S. 5th District Court of Appeals.

That court is considering a December decision by U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor that concluded the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. The health care law remains in effect while the decision is appealed, and President Donald Trump's administration recently disclosed it would argue to strike down the law in its entirety.

In a statement, Kaul said participating in the lawsuit was "contrary to interests of Wisconsinites.”

“If the challenge to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is successful, people with a pre-existing condition will lose critical protections, health-insurance coverage will be imperiled for millions of Americans, the health-insurance market will be destabilized and our efforts to address the opioid epidemic will be undermined,” his statement said.

Republican leaders of the state Legislature, who oppose Evers' decision to withdraw from the lawsuits, did not immediately respond to Tuesday's ruling.

Mary Spicuzza of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.