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A divided federal appeals court found the health insurance mandate in the Affordable Care Act to be unconstitutional, but upheld the rest of the law in a lawsuit brought by 26 states.
The ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals contradicts a June ruling by the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati that upheld health reform law, including the mandate to obtain insurance coverage. That case has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court (Best's News Service, July 29, 2011).
The 2-1 decision from the 11th Circuit is the first where a Democratic judicial appointee ruled against the act. Judge Frank Hull , an appointee of President Bill Clinton , joined Judge Joel Dubina in rejecting the mandate. Another Clinton appointee, Judge Stanley Marcus , dissented.
Congress crafted the mandate as a regulatory penalty, not a tax, and therefore it cannot be upheld by the Constitution's Taxing and Spending Clause, according to the decision. Also, the mandate "exceeds Congress' enumerated commerce power and … represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives," the majority wrote.
The ruling partially upheld a Jan. 31 decision by U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson in the challenge brought by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business. Vinson ruled that not only was the mandate unconstitutional, it was not severable from the rest of the law and therefore the entire act was not valid.
The court majority ignored a long history of judicial actions that expanded Congress' ability to act under the Commerce Clause, Marcus wrote in his dissent. "The majority does so even though the individual mandate was designed and intended to regulate quintessentially economic conduct in order to ameliorate two large, national problems: first, the substantial cost shifting that occurs when uninsured individuals consume health care services -- as virtually all of them will, and many do each year -- for which they cannot pay; and, second, the unavailability of health insurance for those who need it most -- those with pre-existing conditions and lengthy medical histories," he said.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi , whose state led the multistate lawsuit, declared victory. "The ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds our position that the federal health care law exceeds Congress' power," she said in a statement.

Copyright:	(c) 2011 A.M. Best Company, Inc.
Source:	A.M. Best Company, Inc