The
U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear the case attempting to overturn
the Affordable Care Act, a win for blue states pushing for the high court to
weigh in and potentially thrusting the health law into the 2020 presidential
election campaign.
The
decision means the justices will add the case to their schedule for the next
term, which starts in October. A final decision on the fate of the landmark
that ushered in health insurance coverage for millions of Americans and
reshaped the industry likely would be rendered sometime next year.
"Saddle
up, people. The Supreme Court will take its third shot at the Affordable Care
Act," Nicholas Bagley, a health law expert and professor at the University
of Michigan, tweeted Monday.
The
health insurance lobby applauded the high court's decision Monday, which the
group said will alleviate the legal uncertainty that continues to undermine the
law.
"We
are confident that the Supreme Court will agree that the district court's
original decision to invalidate the entire ACA was misguided and wrong, and
that zeroing out the mandate was never intended to wreak havoc across the
entire American health care system," America's Health Insurance Plans said
in a statement.
The
lawsuit to strike down the nearly 10 year old law was brought by a group of
primarily red states led by Texas. The central argument centers on whether the
law is invalid because it no longer contains the financial penalty that was
levied against those for not purchasing health insurance coverage. Congress
later changed the penalty to zero and because of that the courts have said the
mandate can no longer be considered a tax.
The key
legal question is whether the rest of the law could stand without the mandate,
or whether the remainder of the law could be severed from it.
A lower
court ruled the individual mandate was unconstitutional and
"inseverable" from the rest of the law, striking down the Obama-era
law.
A
federal appeals court later upheld the lower court's ruling in part. The
appeals court agreed the mandate was unconstitutional but punted the question
about whether the rest of the law could stand without it back to the lower
court.
A
coalition of blue states, led by California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra,
stepped in to defend the law as President Donald Trump’s administration has
declined to defend it in court.
Becerra
then appealed the decision to the Supreme Court and asked the court for an
expedited review, which the high court declined in January.
In a
statement Monday, Becerra cheered the news from the high court and said more
should be done to improve healthcare instead of tearing it away.
"As
Texas and the Trump Administration fight to disrupt our healthcare system and
the coverage that millions of people rely upon, we look forward to making our
case in defense of the ACA. American lives depend upon it," he
said.
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