Sen. Casey: Court‘s ACA ruling will cost millions their health care

A federal appeals court ruled that an Affordable Care Act requirement that mandated Americans to purchase health insurance was unconstitutional, but did not rule on whether to overturn the act, known as Obamacare.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday agreed with a lower court ruling in 2018, but it referred the question on whether the act can survive without it, back to U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor.
O’Connor’s decision is expected to take time and may not be finished before the end of next year.
The ruling could still lead to millions of Americans losing their health care, said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton.
“The Fifth Circuit Court has punted on the big question of severability, and the GOP’s hopes to destroy the ACA lives another day,” Casey said in a statement on Wednesday. “The case will now go back to the district court, and we will hear much more legal analysis in coming daysbut don’t get distracted. The GOP still wants to rip your health care away.”
If the act is overturned, more than a million Pennsylvanians could lose their health care coverage and millions more would be set to lose their coverage due to having pre-existing conditions that are currently protected under the act, said Antoinette Kraus, executive director of the Pennsylvania Health Access Network, a Harrisburg-based health care nonprofit.
“While this ruling has the potential to have devastating impact in the long term, it is critical that people understand that the Affordable Care Act remains the law of the land,” Kraus said.
Proponents of a decision to erase the act note that Obamacare’s rules helped increase insurance costs and reduces patients’ ability to choose a doctor. Wednesday’s decision could create a path to ending those rules and a health insurance market with more choice, Robert Henneke, lead counsel for the plaintiff states including Alabama, Indiana and Arkansas, said in a statement.
“This decision puts us one step closer to eventually freeing the American people from its unconstitutional mandates and regulations,” he said. “We will continue to fight to protect the rights of families and individuals as the case continues to proceed through the courts.”

CREDIT: Ioannis Pashakis