Is Obamacare Unconstitutional? Supreme Court To Rule On Affordable Care Act

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear arguments in a case that has the potential to wipe out the vestiges of Obamacare, determining whether the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for minimum coverage is constitutional.

This is the third major Obamacare case to come before the high court. No timetable for arguments was issued, despite Democrats’ appeal that the case be fast-tracked. That likely means arguments will be scheduled for the fall, making it likely a ruling would not come until spring 2021 at the earliest.

The case is an appeal of a lower court ruling in Texas that declared the law unconstitutional, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans agreed the law’s individual mandate was unconstitutional but did not weigh in on the overall law’s unconstitutionality.

Democrats worry the new makeup of the Supreme Court could spell the death knell for the health insurance reform measure, the Obama administration’s signature achievement, that was designed to make coverage available for the millions of Americans who lacked coverage. Its most popular features included coverage for preexisting conditions and the ability for children to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26.

Before the adoption of the ACA, 44 million Americans were uninsured. That number was reduced to 27.4 million by 2017. Some 8.3 million Americans signed up through the federal marketplace for 2020 coverage.

The measure came under criticism for its failure to keep a lid on premiums and healthcare costs in general.

Democrats see the healthcare as a key issue for the 2020 campaign given Republicans’ inability to come up with a replacement plan despite more than a decade of criticism of Obamacare and promises to replace it with something better.

The case before the court was initiated by Republican state officials arguing the congressional decision in 2017 to eliminate the fines imposed for failing to obtain coverage rendered the law unconstitutional. The administration argues that without the mandate, the healthcare law cannot survive.

In a brief filed by lawyers supporting the ACA, Democrats argued businesses and governments make major decisions based on the ACA and need uncertainty about the act’s viability to be resolved while the Trump administration argued there’s no rush for the Supreme Court to hear the case and should allow the issues to be adjudicated fully in the lower courts first.

In two earlier rulings, the high court upheld the individual mandate, ruling the fines imposed by the law actually were taxes that had been lawfully imposed by congress. In a subsequent ruling, the court approved nationwide subsidies that helped the poor and middle-class buy coverage. Since then, however, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a key swing vote on the court, retired and was replaced by Brett Kavanaugh.