AUSTIN – This week the Texas Public Policy Foundation, on behalf of individual Texans burdened by Obamacare, filed to join the Texas-led, 20 state lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional as amended by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has already held that the individual mandate absent the tax penalty is unconstitutional,” said Robert Henneke, general counsel and director of the Center for the American Future at TPPF. “Now that Congress has set the tax penalty at zero, it no longer performs the essential function of a tax, which is to generate revenue for the federal government. Under the Supreme Court’s own analysis in the NFIB v. Sebulius case, there is no remaining legal basis on which to uphold the individual mandate, which cannot be severed from the Affordable Care Act as a whole. By joining this lawsuit, the Foundation seeks to accomplish what Congress has failed to do — fully strike down this unconstitutional law.”
In the lawsuit, TPPF represents Neill Hurley and John Nantz, individuals who wish to be able to purchase health insurance coverage in a competitive market that meets their needs, is affordable and enables them to receive health care from their preferred providers. Yet, even after the elimination of the individual mandate penalty, Hurley and Nantz remain subject to the individual mandate and other regulatory burdens of the ACA.
Learn more about Hurley’s experience here.
