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A Texas court has declared the entire ACA unconstitutional
By Austin Frakt PhD
And I’ve got an op-ed in the Washington Post about why the court is wrong. Here’s a taste:
Who cares if a zero-dollar mandate is constitutional or not? Why does it matter in the slightest? And what on earth does it have to do with the rest of ACA?
You might have thought that the right remedy would be to invalidate the penalty-free mandate. Doing so would align with Congress’s evident view that an ACA without an individual mandate was preferable to an ACA with it. That’s what I argued in an amicus brief with a bipartisan group of law professors.
Instead, the court held that the entire ACA was “inseverable” from the purportedly unconstitutional mandate. To reach that conclusion, the judge leaned heavily on Congress’s findings from 2010, where it said that the individual mandate was “essential” to the law.
But the mandate that the 2010 Congress said was essential had a penalty attached to it. The finding is irrelevant to a mandate that lacks any such penalty.
In any event, it doesn’t matter what Congress meant to do in 2010. It matters what Congress meant to do in 2017, when a different Congress made a different call about whether the mandate was essential. We know what Congress wanted to do in 2017: repeal the mandate and leave the rest of the act intact. Its judgment could not have been plainer. (I know. I was there! So were you. It wasn’t that long ago.)
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You can read the whole thing here. My co-amici, Jonathan Adler and Abbe Gluck, have a New York Times op-ed sounding similar themes.
I’ll probably write them up more extensively in the coming days, but I’ve also got tentative thoughts about the immediate consequences of the decision (short answer: nothing right now) and the potential difficulties with getting a quick appeal of the decision.
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Filed under: Experts Invited, Health Law & Policy | Tagged: ACA, ACA unconstitutional, Austin Frakt PhD |
The Leading Business Education Network for Doctors, Financial Advisors and Health Industry Consultants 
Supreme Court Striking Down ObamaCare is ‘Likeliest Outcome’ Trump Aide
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller on Sunday predicted that the Affordable Care Act will ultimately be struck down by the Supreme Court. “I believe that’s the likeliest outcome, because ObamaCare has always been unconstitutional,” Miller said on CBS’s Face the Nation.
Miller’s prediction came after a federal judge in Texas on Friday ruled that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. The ruling is likely to face legal challenges, and experts have said they expect the healthcare law will not be impacted. Miller, however, on Sunday called on Democrats “to work with Republicans” to pass a new law “once ObamaCare is ultimately struck down.”
Source: Michael Burke, The Hill [12/16/18]
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Judge Rules Entire PP-ACA Unconstitutional
https://www.healthcapital.com/hcc/newsletter/12_18/HTML/TEXAS/convert_hc_topics_tx_v_us_cite_chked_cataloged_12.20.18_hba.php
Health Capital Consultants, LLC
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USA versus Canadian Healthcare
A Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYOf6hXGx6M
Dr. David E. Marcinko MBA
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ACA UPDATE
Appellate Court has ACA’s Individual Mandate in Crosshairs
A federal appeals court may be poised to deem the ACA’s individual mandate unconstitutional, but appeared to be on the fence about whether they believe that strikes down the entire law. States onboth sides of the constitutional debate faced off before a three-judge panel in the Fifth Circuit court Tuesday afternoon, with the future of the Affordable Care Act hanging in the balance. The judges seemed to wrestle with the question at the crux of theongoing case—can the individual mandate be excised from the law?
Texas is leading a group of 18 red states that argue Congress’ 2017 decision to set the mandate penalty to $0 prevents it from functioning as a tax. The Supreme Court narrowly ruled in 2012 that theindividual mandate for everyone to get insurance could be enforced as a tax under the Interstate Commerce Clause. The states argue that since that tax has been effectively struck down, then the rest of the law must go as Congress lost its tax authority.
Source: Paige Minemyer, Robert King, Fierce Healthcare [7/9/19]
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Health insurers expected to refund 743 billion dollars
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/insurance/health-insurers-are-expected-to-refund-dollar743-billion-to-consumers/ar-AAH9H0K?li=BBnbfcN
Mitra
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UPDATE
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/appeals-court-rules-acas-individual-mandate-unconstitutional-lower-court-to-decide-whether-rest-of-law-can-stand-without-it/ar-BBY8zaJ?li=BBnb7Kz
Craig
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Court Strikes Down Obamacare’s Individual Mandate
A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, is unconstitutional. But it sent the case back to the trial judge for another look at whether the entire law is invalid or if some parts can survive.
The nature of the decision and the fact that it comes so late in the year make it highly unlikely that the Supreme Court will weigh in on the fate of Obamacare during its current term, which endsin June. By a 2-1 vote, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans agreed with Texas and 17 other red states that the key part of the law is unconstitutional — the provision that requires all Americans to buy insurance or pay a penalty on their income tax.
Source: Pete Williams, NBC News [12/18/19]
via Ann Miller RN MHA CMP
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THE ACA Update
Obamacare: On Nov. 10, one week after the election, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit against the healthcare law—a group of Republican-led states is trying to get the ACA thrown out.
Their argument? A provision in the 2017 tax cuts repealed the ACA’s individual mandate penalty (the fine for not having health insurance), so they argue the whole enchilada should be thrown out on grounds of unconstitutionality.
Even if Trump announces an appointee ASAP, it’s unlikely she’ll be confirmed and robed up by the 10th. So with an eight-justice court, a 4-4 tie is possible, in which case it’ll be sent back to lower courts.
The Biden campaign is adding the ACA fight to its healthcare-forward message, focusing on Trump’s handling of the pandemic and Biden’s role in getting the ACA passed in the first place. Democratic operatives say healthcare was a winning issue in the 2018 midterms and has only become more potent now that every stray cough is cause for concern.
Kaye
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Unsubsidized ACA Enrollment Dropped by 45% From 2016 to 2019
CMS recently released an analysis of trends in subsidized and unsubsidized marketplace enrollment. Here are some key findings from the report:
• From 2016 to 2019, unsubsidized ACA enrollment declined by 2.8 million people, representing a 45% drop.
• Monthly enrollment across the individual market nationally decreased by 3% between 2018 and 2019.
• The subsidized portion of the market was 140 percent larger than the unsubsidized portion in 2019.
• Unsubsidized enrollment fell by more than 70% in AZ, GA, IA, MO, NE, NH, OK, TN, and WV.
Source: CMS, October 9, 2020
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PP-ACA?
The ACA may have been passed with good intentions, but I had hundreds of patients whose insurance was cancelled when it passed. I saw it. I saw the letters. And tragically years after the law passed the number of uninsured barely decreased.
I understand we don’t want to go backwards, but we must admit when something didn’t work, regardless of political opinions.
We must all work together to create a better plan.
Anonymous
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ACA Legal Update 2020
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-affordable-care-act-faces-another-supreme-court-test/ar-BB1aOAB1?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=SK2LDHP
Beverly
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