The Affordable Care Act of the former U.S President Barack Obama is once again at risk. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments beginning on Tuesday. The hearing is over the latest legal challenge against the landmark legislation as it expands insurance access to millions while mandating every American gets health insurance or pays a tax. A panel of 3-judges will determine whether the law, also known as Obamacare was rendered unconstitutional in 2017. It zeroed out the tax imposed on those who chose not to buy insurance. The U.S District Judge Reed O’Connor said in a ruling in Fort Worth, Texas and declared in December that it did, causing the law’s supporters to appeal.
The lawsuit is entirely supported by Donald Trump. He tweeted on Tuesday that it would have been replaced by something far better if the U.S Supreme Court had previously deemed it unconstitutional. The result of this challenge could affect protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Medicaid expansions are covering more than 12 million Americans. The subsidies are also helping at least 10 million others afford health insurance. The case could eventually reach the Supreme Court, where conservative justices have previously rejected the argument that Congress could require everyone to buy insurance under the Constitution’s interstate commerce clause.
The Chief Justice John Roberts is also joining 4 liberal justices and said Congress did have the power to impose a tax on those without insurance. The Texas lawsuit argues the individual mandate is unconstitutional and the entire law must fall without it with no tax penalty now in effect. Two individual taxpayers are part of the lawsuit. The Trump administration is not defending the law and has filed arguments in favor of O’Connor’s ruling. California’s attorney general represents a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia seeking to overturn O’Connor’s ruling and uphold the law, along with the US House of Representatives.