•January 2, 2019•

By Trudy Lieberman
Rural Health News Service

Right before Christmas a U.S. District Court Judge in Texas ruled the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, was unconstitutional. What’s more, the judge didn’t just throw out the controversial provision that nearly every American is required to carry health insurance, he tossed out the entire law with its myriad provisions.
“Nearly everyone would be affected in some way if the Texas judge’s ruling that the entire ACA is unconstitutional is upheld,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “It would also be a big deal if only the ACA’s preexisting conditions were thrown out as the Trump administration has argued.”
Indeed, it would. Although I’ve argued there are many flaws in the Affordable Care Act, its greatest contribution may be that it opened the door for sick people to get insurance. Until the ACA came along, anyone who needed to buy coverage in the individual insurance market had to pass tough medical scrutiny by insurers. Even a seemingly minor condition like an ear infection could disqualify someone from getting a policy.
There’s no going back to the past on this one. The principle that everyone needs health insurance, whether sick or well, and has a right to get it is now becoming more firmly planted in American health insurance. As proof, we have to look no further than the public outcry that surfaced when Congress tried to repeal the law in 2017, and the importance it took on all over the country in the November midterm elections. Candidates who were on record as opposing the ACA tried to convince voters they really were for letting sick people buy health insurance after all.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.