A federal judge Friday evening ruled the Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare, is unconstitutional nationwide. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, a George W. Bush appointee, sided with a group of Republican Attorneys General and other GOP officials from 20 states, led by Texas, that without the individual mandate, the law itself is unconstitutional.
The Republican led House and Senate, under President Donald Trump, outlawed the individual mandate in the tax cut law last year. The mandate was ruled a tax by the U.S. Supreme Court, in a ruling many believed at the time sealed ObamaCare as permanent.
The lawsuit, which was designed to kill ObamaCare, is supported by President Trump. The ruling threatens the ObamaCare health exchanges and aspects of the Affordable Health Care law, including a ban on insurance companies’ refusing to cover pre-existing conditions.
“The Court finds the Individual Mandate ‘is essential to’ and inserverable from ‘the other provisions’ of the ACA,” O’Connor wrote in his ruling, as Vox reported. “The remainder of the ACA is non-severable from the individual mandate, meaning that the Act must be invalidated in whole.”
An appeal is expected, and that could go as far as the Supreme Court.
In the mean time, the fate of the ObamaCare exchanges and other aspects of the law is unclear.
Bloomberg News reports the ruling “casts uncertainty on insurance coverage for millions of U.S. residents.”
The sign up period for health care plans ends Saturday, December 15. There is no reason to not sign up while the implications of the judge’s ruling are tested.
“Today’s ruling is an assault on 133 million Americans with preexisting conditions, on the 20 million Americans who rely on the ACA’s consumer protections for health care, and on America’s faithful progress toward affordable health care for all Americans,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement, Bloomberg reports, adding that a “spokeswoman for Becerra said an appeal will be filed before Jan. 1.”
Image by LaDawna Howard via Flickr and a CC license