Appellate Court to weigh Obamacare as the case looms in the 2020 health care debate



[ad_1]

Obamacare faces Tuesday in New Orleans a panel of three judges who will determine whether the health care law is unconstitutional and should be overturned.

The timing of the trial means that a court decision and a possible appeal to the Supreme Court could bring the future of Obamacare to the center of the political debate. before the presidential election of 2020. Such a result would put President Trump on the spot to defend his vision of an alternative while congressional Democrats would accuse Republicans of not pledging to protect the sick of Obamacare, as they had done before the mid-term elections of 2018.

The trial, Texas c. United States, has the support of the Trump administration and was led by representatives of the Republican state who say that Obamacare must be thrown following the removal of the fine provided for by the law for uninsured persons in the 2017 tax law. They assert that the fine, known as "individual warrant", was essential for the rest of the law to work, and that without it, the law all entire should collapse.

The case is headed Tuesday to the Court of Appeals of the Fifth Circuit, considered one of the most conservative courts of appeal of US judges Carolyn Dineen King Jennifer Walker Elrod and Kurt Engelhardt will hear the pleadings. They are appointed by Presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush and Trump, respectively.

Texas was appealed after the US District Judge, Reed O. Connor, in the North District of Texas, sided with the GOP state representatives in December, declaring Obamacare unconstitutional. O 'Connor, nominated by Bush, wrote in his decision that he felt that Congress would not have adopted Obamacare without the mandate and that the specific regulatory framework that he had created was supposed to operate in tandem.

California and other Democratic-majority states appealed for the 5th Circuit. Their argument is that the Congress never intended to defeat the other parties of Obamacare when it canceled the individual mandate.

On June 26, the judges of the 5th Circuit asked the people involved in the prosecution to further clarify whether the democratic states and the House, which had united to defend Obamacare, could provide more documents to show why they had quality. to act. Proponents of Obamacare feared that the judges dismiss the appeal on procedural grounds, which would allow the decision of Mr. O. Connor to be upheld.

The Trump administration on Wednesday urged the court not to dismiss the appeal, saying it had intervened because it applied Obamacare.

Obamacare remained in law during the legal proceedings. If this were to be reversed, it would have repercussions on the entire health system, including the cancellation of the Medicaid expansion for 17 million poor, insignificant rules requiring insurers to cover the health care system. people with pre-existing conditions, preventable drug price cuts that seniors pay, and a rule that allows children to stay on their parents' health plans until the age of 26.

The Trump administration has changed positions since the beginning of the court challenge. When Obamacare went to O & # 39; Connor, the administration sided with GOP officials but specifically asked that the rules on pre-existing diseases be canceled. These rules prohibit health insurance companies from denying sick clients or charging them more.

Although the Trump government is now backing O Connor's decision that the entire law should be declared unconstitutional, he said in Wednesday's brief that parts of the law could remain in force, such as the anti-fraud laws.

The case could eventually end up in the Supreme Court, which could only decide to consider it if the 5th Circuit upheld O Connor's decision. The Supreme Court decided twice to defend Obamacare in 2012 and 2015, but the composition of justice was different. Since these decisions, conservative and Trump-nominated Conservative and Conservative judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have been confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate.

[ad_2]

Source link