SCOTUS Trashes Republican Challenge To Obamacare
Michael Cantrell
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The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to throw out the challenge to Obamacare. The justices, in a 7-2 vote, are leaving the whole law intact, stating that Texas other Republican-led states and two individuals have no right to bring their lawsuit to federal court.
This is something that folks on the right have been trying to fight against for more than 10 years now, and unfortunately, it’s proving nigh to impossible to get rid of this monstrosity, even with a more conservative majority on the bench.
The law’s major provisions include protections for people with pre-existing health conditions, a range of no-cost preventive services and the expansion of the Medicaid program that insures lower-income people, including those who work in jobs that don’t pay much or provide health insurance.
Also left in place is the law’s now-toothless requirement that people have health insurance or pay a penalty. Congress rendered that provision irrelevant in 2017 when it reduced the penalty to zero.
The elimination of the penalty had become the hook that Texas and other Republican-led states, as well as the Trump administration, used to attack the entire law. They argued that without the mandate, a pillar of the law when it was passed in 2010, the rest of the law should fall, too.
Trump’s three appointees to the Supreme Court — Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — split their votes. Kavanaugh and Barrett joined the majority. Gorsuch was in dissent, signing on to an opinion from Justice Samuel Alito.
Pretty disappointing to have these so-called “conservative-leaning” justices sellout their values and toss out this lawsuit, preventing Republicans from being able to get rid of Obamacare and provide better healthcare options for the American people.
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