Obamacare took a beating in the courts today, with the individual mandate being ruled unconstitutional by two out of three federal judges on the fifth circuit:
🚨🚨🚨
The Fifth Circuit has upheld Judge O'Connor's ruling that the Obamacare individual mandate is unconstitutional because it can no longer be read as a tax — but it has remanded to the district court to see if the mandate can be severed from the law. https://t.co/EkFt2XLvXf
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) December 18, 2019
Here’s more from USA Today:
A federal appeals court in New Orleans struck down a major part of the Affordable Care Act Wednesday, a decision that could jeopardize health insurance coverage for millions of Americans and set up a potential election-year showdown at the Supreme Court.
The 2-1 ruling against the law’s mandate that people buy insurance, rendered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, represents the latest action in a string of legal challenges that have imperiled former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement since its enactment in 2010.
The new challenge stems from the $1.5 trillion tax cut passed by Congress in 2017, which repealed the health care law’s tax on people who refuse to buy insurance. That tax was intended to prod them into the health care marketplace rather than letting them seek emergency care while uninsured.
It’s about time a court did what should have been done by John Roberts a few years ago, ruling this socialist health care disaster unconstitutional.
But while they did rule the individual mandate unconstitutional, instead of striking it down the main judge sent the case back to federal district court for more analysis:
Last December, federal District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that without the tax, the law could not survive. His ruling was not implemented pending appeal, but it threatened to wipe out insurance for 20 million people, protection for people with preexisting conditions, subsidies for low-income people, Medicaid expansions in many states, coverage for young adults up to age 26, and more.
The appeals court agreed that the individual mandate is unconstitutional “because it can no longer be read as a tax, and there is no other constitutional provision that justifies this exercise of congressional power,” Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote.
But rather than strike down the entire law, as O’Connor did, the appeals court panel sent the case back to federal district court for “additional analysis.”
Whether the Affordable Care Act’s supporters will wait for that analysis or appeal the decision to the Supreme Court remains to be seen. If the ruling is appealed, it likely would not be heard until the fall of 2020 at the earliest.
It does look like Obamacare’s days are numbered and I hope, should Republicans win back the House and keep the Senate, that they can once and for all kill it and put in reforms to undo the damage it’s done to healthcare market.
In case you are wondering, Judge Elrod is a W. appointee, Judge Engelhardt is a Trump appointee, and Judge King, the lone dissenter, is a Carter appointee.
Here’s the full ruling if you want to read it.