Pirate's Cove

Don’t get too excited, because it would have to go to the Supreme Court again. So we can get Chief Justice Roberts to do the wrong thing again

Citing change in tax law, judge rules entire health-care law unconstitutional

A federal judge in Texas threw a dagger into the Affordable Care Act on Friday night, ruling that the entire health-care law is unconstitutional because of a recent change in federal tax law.

The opinion by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor overturns all of the sprawling law nationwide.

The ruling came on the eve of the deadline Saturday for Americans to sign up for coverage in the federal insurance exchange created under the law. If the ruling stands, it would create widespread disruption across the U.S. health-care system — from no-charge preventive services for older Americans on Medicare to the expansion of Medicaid in most states, to the shape of the Indian Health Service — in all, hundreds of provisions in the law that was a prized domestic achievement of President Barack Obama.

President Trump, who has made the dismantling of the ACA a chief goal since his campaign, swiftly tweeted his pleasure at the opinion. “As I predicted all along, Obamacare has been struck down as an UNCONSTITUTIONAL disaster!” the president wrote just after 9 p.m. “Now Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions.”

Later, the White House issued a statement on the ruling, saying: “We expect this ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court. Pending the appeal process, the law remains in place.”

Congressional Democrats have said that they plan to Do Something, which most likely means passing something even more extreme. The few moderates, Blue Dog Dems, and plain old Liberals will want something a little stronger than Ocare. The more hardcore ones, of which there are now a lot, perhaps even a majority, will push for their single payer Medicare For All plan.

“Once the heart of the ACA — the individual mandate — is declared unconstitutional, the remainder of the ACA must also fall,” the lawsuit said.

In his 55-page opinion, O’Connor agrees. He writes that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, saying that it “can no longer be fairly read as an exercise of Congress’ tax power.”

The judge also concludes that this insurance requirement “is essential to and inseverable from the remainder of the ACA.”

And that has always been at the heart of the matter, despite what the liberals and Chief Justice Roberts ruled: the tax is un-Constitutional, and there was no severability built in Obamacare. Rule one part un-Constitutional, the entire thing is un-Constitutional.

Interestingly, many insurers and health insurance groups are upset with this ruling. It’s almost as if they see themselves making lots of money from Ocare, eh?

What happens now? The time to kill Ocare was in 2012, before it went into effect. Now that so many depend on it, it must be replaced. But with the Senate controlled by the GOP and House the Democrats, what could they possibly agree on?