Nate
Raymond JULY 9, 2019
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters)
- The future of Obamacare could be at stake on Tuesday when a group of
Democratic-led states and the House of Representatives urge a federal appeals
court to overturn a Texas judge’s ruling that the U.S. healthcare reform law is
unconstitutional.
Republicans have
repeatedly tried to repeal Obamacare, formally named the Affordable Care Act,
since its 2010 passage. The Justice Department would normally defend a federal
law, but the Trump administration has declined to take that position against a
challenge by 18 Republican-led states.
A coalition of Democratic
state attorneys general led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
stepped into the void to defend the law, also called the ACA. The House
intervened after Democrats won control in November’s elections after many
focused their campaigns on defending Obamacare.
A three-judge panel of
the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, including two judges
appointed by Republican presidents and one by a Democrat, will take up a ruling
by a federal judge in Texas last year that the entire ACA was unconstitutional.
Two hours before
arguments were to get underway, about a dozen law students and lawyers had
lined up outside the courthouse on a steamy New Orleans summer day to make sure
they had seats to view the arguments.
An appellate ruling
declaring Obamacare unconstitutional could prompt an appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court, opening the door for the top court to take up the issue in the midst of
the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Obamacare, the
signature domestic achievement of Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama,
has been a political flashpoint since its passage.
Republican opponents
call the law an unwarranted intervention by government in health insurance
markets, while supporters say striking it down would threaten the healthcare of
20 million people who have gained insurance since its enactment.
In 2012, a divided
U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of its provisions, including the individual
mandate, which requires people to obtain insurance or pay a penalty.
The mandate compelled
healthy people to buy insurance to offset sicker patients’ costs after
Obamacare barred insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing
conditions.
The Supreme Court’s
conservative majority argued that Congress could not constitutionally order
people to buy insurance. But Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four
liberal members to hold the mandate was a valid exercise of Congress’ tax
power.
Republicans in
Congress subsequently failed to overturn Obamacare, but in December 2017, Trump
signed into law a tax bill passed by a Republican-led Congress that reduced the
tax penalty to zero dollars.
A coalition of
Republican-led states headed by Texas sued, alleging the tax penalty’s
elimination rendered Obamacare unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge
Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, agreed in December 2018, saying the
individual mandate was unconstitutional because it no longer triggered a tax.
O’Connor, nominated by
former Republican President George W. Bush, said that because Obamacare called
the mandate “essential,” the entire law must be struck down.
The Justice Department
initially argued the mandate was unconstitutional but most of Obamacare could
be severed from it. But it argues on appeal the law’s balance must be struck down.
Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Scott Malone, Jeffrey
Benkoe and Susan Thomas
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-obamacare/obamacares-future-in-play-as-u-s-appeals-court-weighs-its-constitutionality-idUSKCN1U40ZU?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=linkedin
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