February 1st, 2011 – Yesterday, a Federal Judge in Florida ruled that the “individual mandate” of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is unconstitutional. The individual mandate requires that all Americans purchase health insurance by 2014. The judge went on to say that, “Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire act must be declared void.”
The Federal Department of Justice will appeal the decision in Florida and rulings in 25 other states. Whether or not the individual mandate is constitutional will eventually be decided in the United States Supreme Court. It may take several months or more before this reaches the Supreme Court and the fate of the individual mandate and perhaps the entire PPACA is decided.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sometimes called “ObamaCare” was signed into law by President Obama in March of 2010. The individual mandate has proven very unpopular with conservatives and many liberals alike. However the individual mandate was championed by the insurance lobbyists as the only way that the PPACA could work. Without the individual mandate many healthy people may gamble and go without insurance, causing rates to increase for the rest of the insured population.
Do you think there should be an indvidual mandate that all Americans have health insurance?
