Overview of Litigation Filed to Stop Health Reform

(Jane Perkins, May 2010)

An important element of health care reform is the requirement that most individuals have minimum health insurance or pay a penalty. Elected officials and private citizens from a number of states are arguing that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) is unconstitutional because of this so-called “individual mandate.” This requirement is critical because, without it, healthy people can go without insurance coverage until they need it. If healthy people are able to neglect coverage in this way, implementation of the health care reform law would be seriously threatened. Insurance markets would struggle to adhere to provisions contained in the law that, for example, require insurers to charge premiums without differentiation based on health status and to provide coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions and without annual or life-time limits on coverage. Compare Charles Fried, Health care law’s enemies have ally in Constitution, BOSTON GLOBE, May 21, 2010 (“Insurance just won’t work if you could wait until your house is on fire to buy it.”).
Read more on our Health Reform Litigation page...