This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.The “individual mandate” of former President Barack Obama’s health care law is invalid, but other parts of the law need further review, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
“It may still be that none of the ACA is severable from the individual mandate, even after this inquiry is concluded. It may be that all of the ACA is severable from the individual mandate. It may also be that some of the ACA is severable from the individual mandate, and some is not,” Judge Jennifer Elrod wrote.
“Without any enforcement mechanism to speak of, questions about the legality of the individual `mandate’ are purely academic, and people can purchase insurance – or not – as they please,” King wrote. “No more need be said; it has long been settled that the federal courts deal in cases and controversies, not academic curiosities.”
All the Democratic presidential candidates favour expanding coverage to the remaining 27 million uninsured, although their ideas range from building on the Obama health law to replacing America’s mix of private and public insurance with a single plan run by the government. With no tax in effect, the Texas lawsuit argued, the so-called “individual mandate” was unconstitutional and the entire law must fall. Judge O’Connor agreed in his December ruling.