A House vote is expected over the weekend.
McMaster said Friday that he expects attorneys general to join the lawsuit. He and other GOP counterparts have denounced the legislation.
COLUMBIA (AP) -- South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster says he and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum are ready to file a federal lawsuit if health care reform legislation passes.
The U.S. House plans to vote on the plan Sunday.
McMaster said Friday that he expects attorneys general to join the lawsuit. He and other GOP counterparts have denounced the legislation.
"We are ready to kill it," McMaster said. "When the national government and Congress start going wild, it's up the states to rein them in."
McMaster says he wants to challenge an exemption that would keep Nebraska from paying for Medicaid costs.
He says even if that provision is dropped, he will sue over the requirement for everyone to buy health insurance. McMaster says both provisions violate state sovereignty.
"It's essentially a direct tax on the people for which there is no authority," McMaster said. "It's the national government requiring a citizen to buy something that he may or may not want to buy. There's no authority in the Constitution that allows the Congress to do that."
Both McMaster and McCollum are running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in their states.
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