Fourteen U.S. states filed lawsuits on Tuesday challenging the health insurance reform law signed earlier in the day by President Barack Obama.

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) signs the healthcare reform bill at the White House in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, March 23, 2010. Obama on Tuesday signed a sweeping healthcare reform bill that passed the House of Representatives on Sunday night, on track to bring the most profound changes to the nation’s social security system in more than four decades.

McCollum was joined by counterparts from Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington. Among them, Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell is a Democrat, while others are all Republicans, whose party fiercely opposes the reform.

Meanwhile, Ken Cuccinelli, Republican attorney general of Virginia, filed a separate suit challenging the law in a federal court.

Local media predicted the lawsuits will not be able to stop the healthcare reform, which would offer coverage to 32 million people previously without it, but it could keep the topic alive until the mid-term election in November.

Igor Volsky, a health care researcher affiliated with the Center for American Progress, told Xinhua that once benefits of the reform start pouring in, Republican challenges to it may well evaporate.

“It will be very difficult for Republicans to run campaigns on repealing it,” he said.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet