Families USA's Statement on Health Reform Lawsuit Hearing in Atlanta

Pollack: Affordable Care Act "Ultimately Will Be Upheld in Its Entirety"

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta today heard oral arguments in State of Florida v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a legal challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The following is the reaction of Ron Pollack, Executive Director of the national health organization Families USA, which is a signatory to a friend-of-the-court brief, to today’s hearing:

“Today’s hearing should bolster implementation of the Affordable Care Act. It appears likely that this court will reject the Attorneys’ General arguments in their entirety and leave the new law in place.

“The arguments today illustrate why the Affordable Care Act is both constitutional and good policy. As most courts have found, the individual responsibility provision challenged by the plaintiffs today is easily within Congress’s constitutional commerce clause powers.

“The health care market constitutes roughly one-sixth of the national economy. To suggest that Congress cannot make health care more affordable by establishing the rules that govern this market is absurd, and it goes against decades of legal precedent.

“The individual responsibility provision is also good policy. It protects the overwhelming majority of Americans who have insurance. They will no longer have to pay higher premiums to cover the costs of caring for those who refuse to purchase insurance.

“Moreover, the Affordable Care Act contains dozens of important provisions that are clearly constitutional and unrelated to the individual responsibility provision. They include improved prescription drug coverage for people with Medicare, tax credits for small businesses to help them offer coverage to their workers, and new coverage options for vulnerable Americans through improvements to Medicaid.

“Were the court to uphold the District Court’s decision striking down the entire law, it could have devastating consequences for America’s families. Some of the benefits and rights families would lose include the following:

• Millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions, including children, would again be turned down from health coverage by insurance companies;
• Insurance companies would again cancel coverage when people get sick;
• Insurance companies would restore annual and lifetime caps on health coverage, thereby forcing sick people into bankruptcy;
• Young adults would no longer be able to stay on their parents’ health coverage;
• Seniors and people with disabilities would again face a large and growing gap in their Medicare prescription drug coverage; 
• Small businesses would lose the tax credits they are now receiving that enable them to afford health coverage for their workers; and
• Insurance companies would be free to resume annual double-digit premium increases without any public accountability.

“Given the decades of legal precedent about the Constitution’s commerce clause, we are confident that the law ultimately will be upheld in its entirety, and we will proceed toward the achievement of high-quality, affordable health coverage and care for all Americans.”

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

1201 New York Avenue NW, Suite 1100 · Washington, DC 20005
202-628-3030 · Email: info@familiesusa.org · www.familiesusa.org