Trump administration asks Supreme Court to strike down ACA

The Department of Justice yesterday urged the Supreme Court to strike down the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for pre-existing conditions and expansion of the Medicaid program.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit last year held the ACA’s individual mandate was unconstitutional because Congress had repealed the tax penalty enforcing the law's individual mandate, and sent the case back to a district court in Texas to determine which of the law's provisions could survive without the mandate.

Twenty states and the District of Columbia asked the Supreme Court to review the decision, which the court agreed to do. The Department of Justice's brief yesterday asked the court to find the entire Act could not survive without the mandate, arguing that Congress would not have enacted any of the ACA without the mandate.

The AHA, joined by America’s Essential Hospitals, Association of American Medical Colleges, and Federation of American Hospitals have urged the Supreme Court to reverse the appeals court decision and uphold the Act in its entirety, as have 36 state hospital associations.