US President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday asked the US Supreme Court to strike down the US Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.
It is the third challenge to the law, which was crafted by former US president Barack Obama, which required Americans to buy health insurance or face a tax penalty.
However, in 2017 the US Congress eliminated the fine for people who failed to sign up — known as the individual mandate — removing a key part of Obama’s policy.
The US Department of Justice said that “the individual mandate is not severable from the rest of the act.”
Because of that “the mandate is now unconstitutional as a result of Congress’ elimination ... of the penalty for noncompliance,” it said in a late filing.
As a result “the entire ACA thus must fall with the individual mandate,” it said.
The department also said that ACA coverage protecting people with pre-existing conditions — rules that mean insurers cannot refuse customers because of their age, gender or health status — should also be overturned.
The Supreme Court is to hear the case in its next term starting in October, but US media reported that it is unlikely to be examined before the presidential election in November.
“Obamacare has been an unlawful failure and further illustrates the need to focus on patient care,” White House spokesman Judd Deere was quoted as saying by the Washington Post after Thursday’s filing.
“The American people deserve for Congress to work on a bipartisan basis with the president to provide quality, affordable care,” Deere said.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized move by the Trump administration, calling it an “act of unfathomable cruelty” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
If passed, 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions could lose the ACA’s protections and as many as 23 million citizens could be left without any insurance, Pelosi said.
“There is no legal justification and no moral excuse for the Trump administration’s disastrous efforts to take away Americans’ healthcare,” she said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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