The health care law has helped insure 20 million people since 2010 and survived two Supreme Court battles in 2012 and 2015, but it's threatened again.
WASHINGTON – Pop quiz: The Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012 and 2015, and has survived dozens of repeal efforts in Congress. So is it finally safe?The latest threat looms in New Orleans, where a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will hear 90 minutes of oral argument Tuesday in a challenge that threatens the law's key features – and possibly the entire 974-page statute.
That ruling has not been implemented pending appeal, but the implications are huge. If the law is wiped out, so too would be insurance for 20 million people, protection for people with preexisting conditions, subsidies for low-income people, Medicaid expansions in many states, coverage for young adults up to age 26 and more.
Hearing the two sides will be a three-judge panel that includes two judges chosen by Republican presidents and one by a Democrat. If its decision eventually goes to the full appeals court, that too is dominated by GOP presidents' choices. In his decision, O'Connor said the intentions of both the 2010 and 2017 Congresses had to be considered."The former enacted the ACA," he said."The latter sawed off the last leg it stood on."
That's the position of Texas and other conservative states. "In the end, the ACA is a naked command to buy an insurance product the government deems suitable," Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins argued in court papers. By eliminating the tax penalty for those who do not buy insurance, Congress in 2017 merely subtracted a requirement without harming anyone, the states argued.
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