Coakley: Supreme Court Case Would Not Affect Mass. Law

Attorney General Martha Coakley says the requirement that Massachusetts residents purchase health insurance is unlikely to be altered by any ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on a similar federal provision.

The high court began hearing arguments Monday on the constitutionality of the individual mandate contained in the 2010 federal health care bill.

Coakley told reporters in Boston that even if the Supreme Court were to strike down the federal provision, she did not believe it would affect the first-in-the-nation state law signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney in 2006.

Coakley also noted that there had been no challenges to the Massachusetts law in the state courts.

In an earlier brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the so-called mandate, Coakley said it had been successful in expanding health care in Massachusetts.