|
 Two Republican-appointed members of the three-judge panel of the 5th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sharply questioned lawyers for a group
of Democratic state attorneys general and the Democratic-led U.S.
House of Representatives defending the Affordable Care Act.
Republicans including President Donald Trump have repeatedly and
unsuccessfully tried to repeal the ACA since it was passed in 2010.
The Justice Department would normally defend a federal law, but
Trump's administration has declined to do so in a challenge by 18
Republican-led states.
The court made no decision on Tuesday. Whichever way it rules, the
decision could prompt an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court,
potentially setting up a major legal battle over healthcare for tens
of millions of Americans in the midst of the 2020 U.S. presidential
election.
The judges focused on whether Obamacare lost its legal justification
after Trump in 2017 signed a law that eliminated a tax penalty used
to enforce the law's mandate that all Americans buy health
insurance.
"If you no longer have the tax, why isn't it unconstitutional?"
Judge Jennifer Elrod, who was appointed by Republican President
George W. Bush, asked during Tuesday's hearing on a sweltering day
in New Orleans.
Judge Kurt Engelhardt, a Trump appointee, asked why if Congress
thought the law had so many "excellent ideas" unrelated to its
"linchpin" mandate, it would not have taken steps to ensure the rest
of the law would not be struck down as well.
"There's a political solution here that you, various parties are
asking this court to roll up its sleeves and get involved in,"
Engelhardt said.
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general led by
California's Xavier Becerra stepped up to defend the signature
achievement of Trump's Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. The
House of Representatives intervened after Democrats won control in
the November midterm elections, during which many focused their
campaigns on defending Obamacare.
Republican opponents call the law an unwarranted intervention by
government in health insurance markets, while supporters say
striking it down would threaten the healthcare of 20 million people
who have gained insurance since its enactment.
[to top of second column] |
In 2012, a divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of its provisions,
including the individual mandate, which requires people to obtain
insurance or pay a penalty.
The mandate compelled healthy people to buy insurance to offset
sicker patients' costs after Obamacare barred insurers from denying
coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority found Congress could not
constitutionally order people to buy insurance. But Chief Justice
John Roberts joined the court's four liberal members to hold the
mandate was a valid exercise of Congress' tax power.
After Trump signed a tax bill passed by a Republican-led Congress
that reduced the tax penalty to zero dollars, a coalition of
Republican-led states headed by Texas sued, alleging the tax
penalty's elimination rendered Obamacare unconstitutional.
"IT'S COMPLICATED"
In December 2018, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth,
Texas, agreed. O'Connor, who was also nominated by George W. Bush,
said that because Obamacare called the mandate "essential," the
entire law must be struck down.
Kyle Hawkins, Texas' solicitor general, said "essential" language
was all the 5th Circuit needed to look at to see the entire law
should be struck down. "The best evidence is the text itself," he
said.
Douglas Letter, the House of Representatives' general counsel,
argued that since Congress had not repealed the rest of Obamacare,
it never intended to invalidate the entire law.
"Courts are required to give a statute a constitutional
interpretation if you can and save everything unless Congress
prefers no statute," he argued.
The Justice Department initially argued the mandate was
unconstitutional but most of Obamacare could be severed from it. But
it argued on appeal that rest of the law cannot be severed.
Pressed by Elrod on the administration's plans if Obamacare is
struck down, August Flentje, a Justice Department lawyer, said, “A
lot of this stuff would need to get sorted out, and it’s
complicated."
(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Scott Malone, Bill Berkrot,
Richard Chang and Leslie Adler)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
