Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a petition with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, urging the entire court to rehear a case involving the legality of a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rule delegating power to a private entity to impose taxes on States. The rule requires states to reimburse health-insurance companies for a tax known as the health-insurer premium fee (HIPF), which was created by the Affordable Care Act.
A federal district court in Fort Worth ruled in favor of Texas, allowing it and other States in the lawsuit to recover over $450 million from the federal government. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled that the States’ lawsuit was time-bared, even though the CMS rule did not affect the States until 2015. If allowed to stand, the court’s previous decision would allow the federal government to grant unlawful powers to private entities merely by instructing the entities to wait six years before using its newly delegated power.
Read a copy of the filing here.