Twenty states, including Alabama, have formed a coalition to file a lawsuit against the government claiming that the Affordable Care Act is now unconstitutional.
According to the lawsuit, the states are claiming that since the GOP eliminated the tax penalty associated with the individual mandate, ObamaCare itself is no longer constitutional.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on Dec. 22, 2017, eliminated the tax penalty of the ACA, without eliminating the individual mandate itself, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas.
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that ObamaCare’s individual mandate was constitutional because Congress has the power to levy taxes. The lawsuit points to that part of the ruling in its argument that the law is no longer constitutional.
“Following the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the country is left with an individual mandate to buy health insurance that lacks any constitutional basis,” the lawsuit states. “Once the heart of the ACA — the individual mandate — is declared unconstitutional, the remainder of the ACA must also fall.”
In its current form, the ACA imposes rising costs and transfers an enormous amount of regulatory power to the federal government, according to a statement by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, who are leading the 20-state coalition lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed by the attorneys general for the states of Wisconsin, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, Texas, and by the governors of Maine and Mississippi.
The Medical Association is closely monitoring the lawsuit and will report more information as it becomes available.