BOISE - House Republicans voted Wednesday in favor of nullifying the federal health care overhaul, despite an Idaho attorney general's opinion and Democratic objections that the measure is unconstitutional.

The vote was 49-20 to send the measure to the state Senate. Democrats opposed the bill, joined by seven Republicans.

Republican Rep. Vito Barbieri of Dalton Gardens, the sponsor, told lawmakers that the health law is a tentacle of federal encroachment that Idaho must stand up and oppose. Barbieri also cited wolves and the Environmental Protection Agency, which many Idaho Republicans also see as intrusive, as examples of an overreach by Washington, D.C.

Idaho's bill declares the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional and forbids enforcement of penalties against residents. It also prohibits Idaho state and local governments from enforcing the federal law and also bars them from taking federal money - or using their own resources - to put the measure into effect.

"The bottom line is, we're directing the state agencies to stop spending time and money," Barbieri said. "

Idaho has already been granted at least $1 million under the health care law, with $730,000 going to the Department of Health and Welfare to help establish health insurance exchanges. Under the Democrat-backed health reforms passed last year, states must establish insurance exchanges offering a choice of plans operating under common rules to boost competition.

"We will wait to get direction from the Legislature and/or governor if the nullification bill passes," said Health and Welfare spokesman Tom Shanahan on Wednesday. "We have not received any guidance on this to date."

At least 10 other states - Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming - are considering nullification measures, according to the 10th Amendment Center, a Los Angeles-based states' rights group pushing such bills.

Separately, a U.S. District Court judge in Florida has ruled the federal law is illegal in a lawsuit brought by 27 states, including Idaho. Other federal courts have ruled more favorably for health care reform. It's likely the law will be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

House Assistant Minority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, suggested that Idaho would follow whatever the justices ultimately decide, but until then needed to do everything in its power to keep agencies from forging ahead.

"It's easier to stop now than it is to unwind," Bedke said, adding he was piqued by foes who compared this push to the Southern secession that kicked off the Civil War. "To say this is Fort Sumter, or dissolution, or the beginning of the end, that's on some level offensive to me," Bedke said.

Democrats, including Minority Leader John Rusche, argued nullification violates lawmakers' sworn oath to uphold the U.S. and state constitutions.

And Reps. Eric Anderson of Priest Lake; Tom Trail., of Moscow; Max Black of Boise; Fred Wood of Burley; Leon Smith of Twin Falls; Jeff Nesset of Lewiston; and George Eskridge of Dover were the Republicans who opposed the bill.

Leading these GOP dissenters, Anderson said he was against the health insurance overhaul signed by President Barack Obama last year, but said basic civics tells him the future of the Union depends on allowing the Supreme Court to weigh in, not letting individual states decide on their own when and if Washington, D.C. had gone too far.

"I appreciate the angst among the people about the frustration we see with the federal government," Anderson said. "But two wrongs do not make a right."

Still, the majority of Republicans were convinced Idaho must draw a line in the sand. Rep. Ken Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs, said his vote was a signal to Washington, D.C. that Idaho would no longer acquiesce when far-off agencies try to tell it what to do, be it with wolves, environmental laws or health care.

"I can't plow a ditch in my own field without federal government permission," Andrus said, adding defiantly that if federal officials sought to withhold money from Idaho in retaliation for this measure, "I say Uncle Sam, you bring it on."