The Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional without its insurance-coverage penalty, a Texas federal judge ruled Friday, thrusting the embattled health law’s future and coverage for millions of Americans into question.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the main provisions of the Affordable Care Act should be struck down after Republicans repealed its insurance-coverage penalty. The Texas federal judge’s decision could endanger coverage of tens of millions of Americans.
O’Connor sided with the claims of 20 Republican states, which brought a lawsuit asserting the law is unconstitutional without a penalty for not having coverage. Republicans repealed the requirement last year, although it doesn’t go into effect until 2019. The Supreme Court has upheld the ACA as constitutional based on congressional taxing power.
The 16 Democratic attorneys general who have intervened in the case are expected to seek a stay pending appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case could wind up in the Supreme Court.
“Today’s ruling is an assault on 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, on the 20 million Americans who rely on the ACA’s consumer protections for health care, on America’s faithful progress toward affordable health care for all Americans,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who intervened with other Democrats in the case.
In a move that stunned many congressional Republicans, the Justice Department also asked the court to invalidate key planks of the ACA. Those provisions include consumer protections such as the prohibition barring insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
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