Could Obamacare finally be dead?
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth Texas has ruled that Obamacare is unconstitutional. The Texas federal judge made this ruling on Friday.
Last year was when congress first invalidated the tax penalty for anyone who doesn't purchase insurance. That is what opened the door to challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare.
A federal court in Texas has ruled that the entirety of Obamacare is unconstitutional.
Read the ruling -> https://t.co/XSmGFirZMT
— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) December 15, 2018
Per Bloomberg:
Obamacare was struck down by a Texas federal judge in a ruling that casts uncertainty on insurance coverage for millions of U.S. residents.
The decision Friday finding the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional comes just before the end of a six-week open enrollment period for the program in 2019 and underscores a divide between Republicans who have long sought to invalidate the law and Democrats who fought to keep it in place.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth agreed with a coalition of Republican states led by Texas that he had to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act, the signature health-care overhaul by President Barack Obama, after Congress last year zeroed out a key provision — the tax penalty for not complying with the requirement to buy insurance. The decision is almost certain to be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.
Texas and an alliance of 19 states argued to the judge that they’ve been harmed by an increase in the number of people on state-supported insurance rolls. They claimed that when Congress repealed the tax penalty last year, it eliminated the U.S. Supreme Court’s rationale for finding the ACA constitutional in 2012.
The Texas judge agreed.
“The remainder of the ACA is non-severable from the individual mandate, meaning that the Act must be invalidated in whole,” O’Connor wrote.
It appears Obamacare is dying a slow death and this continues it along that path.
President Trump took to Twitter to react to the news on Friday night:
Wow, but not surprisingly, ObamaCare was just ruled UNCONSTITUTIONAL by a highly respected judge in Texas. Great news for America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2018