Kathleen Sebelius says Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli got the list of defendants wrong when he sued to block Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) health coverage ownership requirements.
Cuccinelli persuaded U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson, a judge in the U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., to agree earlier this month to let him proceed with a suit arguing that requiring people and employers to own health insurance violates Americans' constitutional rights.
Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has come out with an answer contending that Hudson should kill the suit because Cuccinelli sued the wrong person.
Sebelius says she does not believe that she is responsible for implementing the coverage mandates described in Section 1501 of PPACA, which is part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) package.
"The secretary of the Treasury is primarily responsible for the administration of the minimum coverage provision that the plaintiff seeks to challenge," Sebelius says in the answer.
Cuccinelli has not listed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as a defendant in the suit, Cuccinelli vs. Sebelius, (Civil Action Number 3:10CV188-HEH).