Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry applauded the U.S. District Court for the Northern Division of Texas after its decision late Tuesday, which ordered the Internal Revenue Service to repay Louisiana and five other states more than $839 million because of an Obama-era HHS scheme to unlawfully impose a costly fee on state Medicaid programs. Louisiana’s share is a little less than $172.5 million.

“Obamacare has always been an economic house of cards, and this ruling has again exposed it for what it is — a money laundering scheme,” Landry said, in a press release from his office. “This is a prime example of the deep administrative state doing something that Congress expressly forbid.”

“Even though the Affordable Care Act forbid imposing the Health Insurance Providers Fee (HIPF) on states, the federal government found a way to do it anyway,” Landry said. “The government threat to disapprove our managed care plans risked the loss of those Medicaid funds. Yesterday’s court victory not only means the IRS must repay the over $172 million that our Medicaid program was illegally forced to pay, but it also protects the state from having to pay millions more in future fees.

“Once the money is returned to Louisiana, following any potential appeals, the governor should return any net dollars directly to the hard-working Louisianans who were forced to pay these costs.”

The attorney general noted that HIPF has always been an “unconstitutional fee” imposed upon the state’s workers.

“I commend our Solicitor General Liz Murrill and the entire multi-state coalition for achieving victory in this important case,” he said.

A copy of the ruling may be found online at www.bit.ly/2Bz1U6Z. The ruling also includes IRS repayment to five other states — Indiana ($95 million), Kansas ($142 million), Nebraska ($36 million), Texas ($305 million), and Wisconsin ($89 million).