Healthcare

The Supreme Court Punts On Obamacare

Written by SK Ashby

The Supreme Court has granted fast-track approval or review to many of the Trump regime's requests but, in this case, the regime actually did not want to see the issue in front of the Supreme Court during an election year.

The Supreme Court will not review the latest attempt to repeal all of Obamacare during their current term.

The Supreme Court denied Tuesday a request that it fast-track a review of a Texas lawsuit seeking to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. The rejection [of] the request, made by the legal defenders of the law, means that Obamacare’s fate won’t be decided before the 2020 election, taking political pressure off of President Trump and Republicans.

The Republican lawsuit argues that the 2017 tax law made Obamacare’s individual mandate unconstitutional by zeroing out the tax penalty for not having health insurance. It also alleges that if the mandate is unconstitutional, the whole law — including its Medicaid expansion and protections for pre-existing conditions — must be invalidated.

This means a total repeal of Obamacare could still be one of the first things the next president has to deal with even if they didn't initiate these proceedings.

If this case is reviewed during the court's next term, a decision could be handed down during the spring of 2021 when the next president is still just beginning to form a complete government and pursue their agenda.

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the Obama administration against the previous two attempts to repeal all of Obamacare at the Supreme Court, but Trump has added two of his own justices to the court since then and it remains to be seen if Roberts will protect the law for a third time.

Even if the court does not invalidate the entire law next year, the mostly conservative justices could still complicate the next administration's agenda by tossing out part of the law.