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Texas, along with 19 states, had argued to U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor that they had been hurt by a jump in the amount of people utilizing state-backed insurance. When Congress cut the tax penalty from the program in 2017, the states claimed, it essentially undercut the Supreme Court’s reasoning for finding former President Barack Obama’s signature legislation constitutional in 2012.

“The remainder of the ACA is non-severable from the individual mandate, meaning that the Act must be invalidated in whole,” O’Connor wrote in a 55-page opinion, according to Bloomberg. O’Connor is a conservative Republican appointee who previously blocked other Obama-era policies.

“As I predicted all along, Obamacare has been struck down as an UNCONSTITUTIONAL disaster,” President Trump tweeted following the ruling. “Now Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions. Mitch and Nancy, get it done!”

In a second tweet, the president declared the ruling to be “great news for America!”

California and other states ruled against by the judge will likely challenge the decision by appealing in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

“Today’s ruling is an assault on 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, on the 20 million Americans who rely on the A.C.A.’s consumer protections for health care, on America’s faithful progress toward affordable health care for all Americans,” Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, said in a statement, according to The New York Times. “The A.C.A. has already survived more than 70 unsuccessful repeal attempts and withstood scrutiny in the Supreme Court.”

“Obamacare has been struck down by a highly respected judge,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

“The judge’s decision vindicates President Trump’s position that Obamacare is unconstitutional,” Sanders continued. “Once again, the President calls on Congress to replace Obamacare and act to protect people with preexisting conditions and provide Americans with quality affordable healthcare. We expect this ruling will be appealed to the Supreme Court. Pending the appeal process, the law remains in place.”

OBAMACARE ENROLLMENT PORTAL BREACHED, DATA OF 75,000 COMPROMISED, OFFICIALS SAY

Democratic leaders, meanwhile, reacted harshly to the decision.

“The ruling seems to be based on faulty legal reasoning and hopefully it will be overturned,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted. “Americans who care about working families must do all they can to prevent this district court ruling from becoming law.”

“While the district court’s absurd ruling will be immediately appealed, Republicans are fully responsible for this cruel decision and for the fear they have struck into millions of families across America who are now in danger of losing their health coverage,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement. “When House Democrats take the gavel, the House of Representatives will move swiftly to formally intervene in the appeals process to uphold the life-saving protections for people with pre-existing conditions and reject Republicans’ effort to destroy the Affordable Care Act.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/obamacare-ruled-unconstitutional-by-texas-judge

The post Obamacare ruled unconstitutional by Texas judge first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Trump’s move late Thursday to end federal subsidies that help insurance companies reduce out-of-pocket costs for low- and middle-income consumers also could deepen the divide among Republicans over how to tackle the 2010 Affordable Care Act as the market opens in a little more than two weeks for people to sign up for health insurance.

On Saturday, a broad health industry coalition, which includes health insurance companies, hospitals, the American Medical Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sent a letter to congressional leaders, urging lawmakers to “take action immediately” to revive the payments.

“Millions will face higher premiums, fewer choices and less access to the medical care they need,” if Congress fails to restore the funds, the trade groups argued.

The Republican leaders who control Congress have pledged to dismantle the health law, but some in the GOP have balked, unwilling to risk the political fallout in states where large numbers of their constituents are insured through Obamacare.

In a tweet Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Trump’s decision an example of his “failure to lead.”

The president, he said, “throws destructive bones to his base, then tells Congress to fix it.”

Trump’s move to cut the payments came on the heels of his Thursday executive order allowing consumers to buy insurance through association health plans across states lines. The move could help millions of consumers find access to cheaper insurance plans, but it could drive them into alternative plans that skirt the law’s consumer protections and minimum coverage requirements.

In a pair of early morning tweets Saturday, Trump celebrated his strikes against President Obama’s signature health care law and reveled in the damage it had done to insurance stock prices, which fell sharply Friday on news he was ending the subsidies.

“Health Insurance stocks, which have gone through the roof during the ObamaCare years, plunged yesterday after I ended their Dems windfall!,” he wrote in one tweet.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/14/trump-move-end-insurance-subsidies-jolts-health-industry-washington/764673001/

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