New Challenges to the Affordable Care Act

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) faces a renewed threat, as a Texas federal court judge is currently hearing arguments in a case that seeks to invalidate the law’s preexisting condition protections and potentially the law itself.  This latest lawsuit asserts that Congress’s repeal of the individual mandate penalty has rendered the mandate unconstitutional. Further, it states that the mandate is an essential feature of the ACA and that without it the rest of the law must be struck down too. Should this argument prevail, an estimated 17 million people could become uninsured.