OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma's attorney general says a decision by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., against a provision of the federal health care law bolsters the state's lawsuit that challenges a similar provision of the Affordable Care Act.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a 2-1 decision on Tuesday that the law authorizes health care subsidies only for people who buy insurance through markets established by the states — not by the federal government.
Oklahoma is one of 36 states that did not establish its own exchange, and instead residents purchased coverage through a federal exchange.
Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Scott Pruitt has a pending lawsuit in federal court in Muskogee that challenges an IRS rule on the subsidies and the assessment of tax penalties.