Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and 20 other states’ attorneys general and several members of the House of Representatives called on the U.S. Supreme Court last week to review a lower court’s decision that the individual mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. The ruling also called into question key provisions in the ACA that outline provisions of coverage for those who have pre-existing conditions.
Raoul and the coalition have asked the Supreme Court to expedite the decision before they end their term in June. In Texas v. United States, Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas ruled in 2018 that the entire health law was unconstitutional because the individual mandate penalty had been essentially eliminated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 which eliminated the mandate penalty.
About 8.3 million people signed up for 2020 health plans on the HealthCare.gov website this enrollment season. More than 12 million Americans receive coverage through the ACA’s Medicaid expansion.