Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-30-2010
ISSN
0028-4793
Publisher
Massachusetts Medical Society
Language
en-US
Abstract
Having been outmaneuvered in Congress with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Affordable Care Act,” or ACA), Republicans have taken their case to federal court, arguing that the law's key provision, the individual mandate to purchase health insurance, is unconstitutional. This argument has been made most prominently by attorneys general from 20 states in a Florida federal court and by the Commonwealth of Virginia in a Virginia federal court. In early August, federal district court judge Henry Hudson decided that the Virginia challenge deserves a hearing,1 thereby giving the constitutional argument an aura of respectability and ensuring that we'll hear more about the meaning of states' rights in the context of the Constitution's Commerce Clause (which grants Congress the authority to regulate interstate commerce), both in court and on the campaign trail.
Recommended Citation
Wendy K. Mariner & George J. Annas,
Health Insurance Politics in Federal Court
,
in
363
New England Journal of Medicine
1300
(2010).
Available at:
https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1009054
Comments
From The New England Journal of Medicine, Wendy K. Mariner and George J. Annas, Health Insurance Politics in Federal Court. Volume 363, Page 1300, Copyright © 2010 Massachusetts Medical Society. Reprinted with permission.