A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the US health care law known as Obamacare is unconstitutional - a ruling that opposition Democrats condemned Saturday and vowed to appeal. US District Judge Reed O'Connor's ruling came on the eve of the Saturday deadline to sign up for 2019 coverage in the federal health care program, known officially as the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The White House expects the case to be appealed to the Supreme Court, saying in a statement that "pending the appeal process, the law remains in place." At the US Supreme Court, five justices in the nine-judge court who voted to uphold Obamacare in a separate case in 2012 are still on the bench.
Conservative Republicans have long opposed former president Barack Obama's landmark health care plan, which he signed into law in 2010. President Donald Trump made abolishing the program one of his main campaign pledges.
The Texas-based judge said that the full Obamacare program was unconstitutional because in last year's tax overhaul, Congress eliminated a penalty for people who failed to sign up for the program if they did not already have their own health insurance. The 2012 case was over whether such a penalty was legal - but now that it is gone, O'Connor says the whole ACA should be stricken down because that provision is "the keystone" of the program.
Comments
Comments are closed.