US federal judge rules Obamacare unconstitutional

Washington, December 15 

A federal judge in Texas struck down the entire Affordable Care Act, popular as Obamacare, ruling that the healthcare law’s individual coverage mandate was “unconstitutional”, handing a major political victory to US President Donald Trump who has long been seeking its end.

The ruling was over a lawsuit filed this year by a group of Republican governors and state attorneys-general. It came on the eve of the Saturday deadline for Americans to sign up for coverage in the federal insurance exchange created under the law.

In a ruling, that is likely to be challenged and was immediately opposed by the Democrats, District Court Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the individual mandate of Affordable Care Act requiring people to have health insurance “can no longer be sustained as an exercise of Congress’s tax power”.

Judge O’Connor, a George W Bush appointee, said “the individual mandate is unconstitutional” and because the mandate cannot be separated from the rest of the law, Obamacare is invalid.

“Wow, but not surprisingly, ObamaCare was just ruled unconstitutional by a highly respected judge in Texas. Great news for America!” Trump exclaimed on twitter.

Repealing and replacing Obamacare was Trump’s election promise and he has been working on this in the first two years of his administration.

The SC upheld the Affordable Care Act as constitutional in 2012 and 2015. The opposition Democrats were quick to raise their voice against the ruling by the federal district judge.

After repeatedly trying and failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Congress, Trump and his Republican allies have turned to right-wing activist judges to try to overturn this vital law, alleged Democratic Senator Dick Durbin. — PTI