WASHINGTON (CNS): On November 10, when the fate of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) faced the United States Supreme Court for the third time since it was signed into law 10 years ago, the justices seemed willing to leave the bulk of the law intact even if they found one part of it to be unconstitutional.
During the two-hour oral arguments by teleconference chief justice, John Roberts, and justice, Brett Kavanaugh repeatedly stressed that they didn’t see how it was necessary to strike down the entire health care law even if its individual mandate, requiring each person to buy health insurance, was invalidated.
Roberts stressed that the move by Congress three years ago to drop the penalty for not buying health insurance did not indicate its intent to do away with the entire health care legislation.
“I think it’s hard for you to argue Congress intended the entire act to fall if the mandate was struck down if the same Congress that lowered the tax penalty to zero did not even try to repeal the rest of the act,” he said. Roberts also pointed out that Congress did not try to kill the entire law when it eliminated the tax penalty. “They wanted the court to do that, but that’s not our job.”
Striking down the law would leave 20 million Americans uninsured in the middle of a raging Covid-19 pandemic, according to estimates from the Urban Institute.
