Federal judge guts Obamacare, handing Texas an early win

A protester dressed as Death holds a sign during a rally before a hearing in a lawsuit against the Affordable Health Care Act in Fort Worth on Sept. 5, 2018. Democratic nominee for Texas attorney general Justin Nelson (not pictured) was one of the speakers.
A protester dressed as Death holds a sign during a rally before a hearing in a lawsuit against the Affordable Health Care Act in Fort Worth on Sept. 5, 2018. Democratic nominee for Texas attorney general Justin Nelson (not pictured) was one of the speakers.
Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune

In a ruling that could throw the nation’s health care system into chaos, Fort Worth-based U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor on Friday ruled that a major provision the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional — and that the rest of the landmark law must fall as well.

In February, a Texas-led coalition of 20 states sued the federal government to end the landmark health care law in its entirety, arguing that after Congress in December 2017 gutted one of its major provisions, the rest of the law was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court had upheld the law because its individual mandate, a financial penalty for not having insurance, could be interpreted as a tax; but after Congress set that tax to $0, the Texas coalition claimed, the rest of the law no longer had “constitutional cover.”

O’Connor sided with Texas, ruling that the individual mandate was rendered unconstitutional. That portion of the law, he argued, is not severable from other provisions, and so the rest of the law must fall.

This is a developing story and will be updated.


Source: Texas Tribune Blue Left News

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