Austin – Today, the United States Supreme Court announced it will review a challenge to the Affordable Care Act brought forth by a coalition including the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the attorneys general from 20 states.
“The decision by the Supreme Court to review the challenge to Obamacare brings the case one step closer to finality and Americans one step closer to freedom from a failed and unconstitutional system,” said Robert Henneke, lead counsel for the individual plaintiffs and general counsel for the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “Obamacare continues to injure millions of Americans like my clients who have lost access to their doctor, suffered from rationed care and had their insurance costs skyrocket.”
The challenge to the Affordable Care Act centers around the individual mandate. In 2012, Chief Justice John Roberts held the individual mandate unconstitutional but allowed the ACA to remain under a savings construction by construing the individual mandate penalty as an exercise of taxation power. In 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set the penalty to zero meaning the penalty no longer generates revenue, thus eliminating the sole basis upon which the Court had allowed the ACA to continue.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling late last year affirmed the U.S. District Court’s judgment finding that Obamacare’s individual mandate is unconstitutional.
The case will likely be heard in the fall with a decision expected in the summer of 2021.