March 28, 2024
Supreme Court refuses for now to hear appeal of decision threatening Affordable Care Act
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to decide on a fast-track basis the fate of the landmark Affordable Care Act after a federal appeals court ruled that its central health insurance mandate is unconstitutional.

By refusing to step in, the justices probably blocked the third Supreme Court test of the controversial health care law from an election-year docket teeming with major cases on abortion, immigration, gun control, gay rights, freedom of religion and subpoenas seeking President Donald Trump's tax and financial records.

This would have been the third time in eight years that the justices considered the 2010 law, not including challenges to parts of the law, such as its requirement that women receive free coverage for contraceptives. That rule will come before the high court this spring, also for the third time.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, ruled last month that the government cannot force most consumers to buy health insurance because Congress eliminated the tax penalty used to enforce the requirement in 2017. The panel sent the case back to a federal district court to decide whether other parts of the law can be saved without the so-called individual mandate.

The appeals court ruling left the law intact but facing an uncertain future. A coalition of predominantly Democratic states led by California, along with the Democratic-led House of Representatives, asked the justices to step in quickly so the case could be heard during this Supreme Court term, which ends in June.

"The lower courts’ actions have created uncertainty about the future of the entire Affordable Care Act, and that uncertainty threatens adverse consequences for our nation’s health care system, including for patients, doctors, insurers and state and local governments," California Solicitor General Michael Mongan said in seeking the quick Supreme Court review.

The Justice Department said the law is in no imminent danger and urged the justices to stand down and let the district court do its work.

"Petitioners’ submission, at bottom, is that the vitality of the ACA’s myriad provisions is too important to be left unresolved," Solicitor General Noel Francisco wrote the justices. "But definitive resolution of that issue will be facilitated, not frustrated, by allowing the lower courts to complete their own consideration of the question."

The high court rescued President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement by a single vote in 2012 after an extraordinary, three-day oral argument. The justices saved it again in 2015 when tax credits critical to the law's success were challenged.

The new challenge stems from the $1.5 trillion tax cut passed by Congress in 2017, which repealed the health care law's tax on people who refuse to buy insurance. That tax was intended to prod them into the health care marketplace rather than let them seek emergency care while uninsured. (Source: USA Today)
Story Date: January 22, 2020
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