Affordable Care Act Case Analysis

On March 23, 2010, the President of the United States signed the “The Affordable Care Act” into law and the Supreme Court rendered a final decision to uphold this new law on June 28, 2012. (About the Law, 2015) But the biggest question regarding this law, is whether it is constitutional or not. "The Act establishes the basic legal protections that until now have been absent: a near-universal guarantee of access to affordable health insurance coverage, from birth through retirement. When fully implemented, the Act will cut the number of uninsured Americans by more than half. The law will result in health insurance coverage for about 94% of the American population, reducing the uninsured by 31 million people, and increasing Medicaid enrollment

Barack Hussein Obama (2011), “challenges Congress’s authority to require private citizens to purchase and maintain “minimum essential” healthcare insurance coverage under penalty of federal law (hereinafter “individual mandate”) pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” (Thomas More Law Center v. Barack Hussein Obama, 2011) The petitioners stated that Congress exceed their authority under the Constitution by enacting the Affordable Cara Act (ACA). “An essential provision of the Act requires private citizens, including Petitioners, to purchase and maintain “minimum essential” healthcare coverage under penalty of federal law.5 26 U.S.C. § 5000A (a); App. 5a-7a, 121a.” (Thomas More Law Center v. Barack Hussein Obama,

152 states the “ACA violates the Origination Clause of the Constitution, since it is a "bill for raising revenue" that did not originate in the House of Representatives.” (Elias, 2013) The Supreme Court declared that the ACA was unconstitutional since the act violated the Commerce Clause but also declared that it was constitutional since it is also a legislates a tax. “Obama claimed it would be "unprecedented" for a court to strike down a law approved by Congress.” (Farah, n.d.)

In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services (648 F. 3d 1235), the Supreme Court upheld the penalty as a constitutional tax. (Is the Obamacare Mandate Unconstitutional Because It Originated in the Senate?, 2014) The lawsuit was brought by Matt Sissel that contended that “the penalty is void under a provision in the Constitution called the Origination Clause: Article I, Section 7, Clause 1. (Is the Obamacare Mandate Unconstitutional Because It Originated in the Senate?, 2014) This case turns on two issues:

1. “Is the penalty for not buying insurance a measure “for raising