As the Affordable Care Act continues its slow march toward the Supreme Court, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued a legal brief regarding the matter. The federal health care law has come under fire largely due to one of its provisions. The provision requires all U.S. citizens to purchase some kind of health insurance. 26 states have come together to combat this provision, along with some of the other aspects of the law. The HHS claims that if the individual insurance mandate is declared unconstitutional, the Supreme Court will also have to make changes to other parts of the law.
According to the HHS, if the individual mandate is struck down, the Court will also have to throw out a provision of the law that allows anyone to purchase insurance coverage regardless of their current health status. This is a possibility, especially as the states opposing the law are pressuring Judges to declare the law as unconstitutional. Lawyers with the HHS claim that if one provision is struck down, Judges will likely continue to dismantle the law until there is nothing left.
Insurers are divided on the issue of the Affordable Care Act as a whole. Many favor the individual mandate provision, but oppose the provision that requires them to sell insurance to anyone. Insurers argue that if only the individual mandate is struck down, the nation’s insurance market would be destabilized as there would be no incentive for healthy people to acquire insurance coverage.
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