North Dakota joins challenge to federal health care law

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says North Dakota is joining a legal challenge to the recently approved federal health care law.

A group of states is suing three federal agencies that will administer the law.

The law says individuals have to buy a health insurance policy if they don't have coverage, and anyone who doesn't buy health insurance must pay a fine.

Stenehjem, a Republican, says the requirement goes beyond the U.S. Constitution's limits on the powers of the federal government.

More than a dozen states are taking part in the lawsuit.

Stenehjem says it won't affect most provisions of the health care bill. He says the lawsuit doesn't challenge the bill's elimination of lifetime coverage caps on insurance, or the exclusion of children from coverage because of existing health problems.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)