Fate of Obamacare law rests with U.S. Supreme Court once again
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[November 10, 2020]
By Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dives back into
politically perilous waters as it hears arguments over a Republican
challenge backed by President Donald Trump's administration aiming to
invalidate the Obamacare healthcare law.
President-elect Joe Biden has criticized Republican efforts to throw out
the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as the law is formally known, in the
midst of a deadly coronavirus pandemic and hopes to buttress Obamacare
after taking office on Jan. 20.
The case represents the latest Republican legal attack on the 2010 law,
which was the signature domestic policy achievement of Democratic former
President Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president.
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The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority after the
Republican-led Senate last month confirmed Trump's third appointee, Amy
Coney Barrett. Most legal experts think the justices will stop short of
a seismic ruling striking down Obamacare. The Supreme Court in 2012 and
2015 fended off previous Republican challenges to it.
Republican-governed states led by Texas, later backed by Trump's
administration, sued in 2018 in Texas to strike down the law. The
justices are due to hear 80 minutes of arguments by teleconference in an
appeal by a coalition of Democratic-led states including California and
New York and the Democratic-led House of Representatives to preserve
Obamacare.
If Obamacare were to be struck down, up to 20 million Americans could
lose medical insurance and insurers could once again refuse to cover
people with pre-existing medical conditions. Obamacare expanded public
healthcare programs and created marketplaces for private insurance.
"We believe there are nine justices who connect the dots and see how
important this is," said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a
Democrat who is leading the coalition of 20 states defending Obamacare.
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The Supreme Court of the United States is seen in Washington, D.C.,
U.S., August 29, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
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"We think there's a very strong chance that Americans will continue
to have good healthcare coverage," Becerra added.
Texas-based U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor in 2018 ruled
that Obamacare was unconstitutional as currently structured in light
of a Republican-backed change made by Congress a year earlier.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year
partially upheld that ruling, saying the law's "individual mandate,"
which required people to obtain insurance or pay a financial
penalty, afoul of the Constitution. But the 5th Circuit stopped
short of striking down the law. The Democratic-led states and the
House then appealed to the Supreme Court.
The 2012 Supreme Court ruling upheld most Obamacare provisions
including the individual mandate. The court defined this penalty as
a tax and thus found the law permissible under the Constitution's
provision empowering Congress to levy taxes.
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In 2017, Trump signed a law that eliminated the financial penalty
under the individual mandate, which gave rise to the Republican
lawsuit. With that change, the individual mandate could no longer be
interpreted as a tax provision and was therefore unlawful, the
Republican challengers argued.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)
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