Court Might Disconnect 'Obamacare' from Life Support, States the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons

Court Might Disconnect ‘Obamacare’ from Life Support, States the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons

PR Newswire

TUCSON, Ariz., Sept. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- While few people really like the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or 'Obamacare')—even Democrats running for President criticize it—it might require a federal court to actually terminate it, writes attorney Andrew Schlafly in the fall issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) sued, and sued again over the unconstitutionality of this attack on private medicine. While ACA was found unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause, Chief Justice Roberts salvaged it by calling the Individual Mandate a tax. The Supreme Court ducked the Origination Clause challenges. Then Congress zeroed out the tax. Eighteen States led by Texas and two individual plaintiffs sued. Then the Trump Department of Justice declined to defend ACA, leaving it to intervenors—States led by California and the U.S. House of Representatives led by Speaker Pelosi—to attempt to carry on the suit.

District court Judge Reed O'Connor declared the whole of ACA to be unconstitutional, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Jul 9. An important issue is the intervenors' legal standing to "stand in the shoes of the United States" to pursue the case. In an amicus brief, (AAPS) argued that States "cannot pretend to be the United States in order to enforce federal law."

AAPS also argued that ACA violates the Tenth Amendment, interfering with the right to offer and to purchase insurance and medical care without federal interference. The regulation of insurance and the practice of medicine has always been the States' prerogative. ACA outlawed numerous arrangements that had been chosen by Americans for decades.

If the court invalidates ACA, "the sky will not fall," Mr. Schlafly writes. ACA supporters "ignore the enormous benefits of the free market, free enterprise, deregulation, and competition, which would ensue if ACA ended."

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943.