US court: health care law provision 'unconstitutional'

Doctors and others take part in a rally in
Washington,DC in 2009
© AFP/File Jewel Samad

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US appeals court in Florida on Friday struck down as unconstitutional the provision of President Barack Obama’s controversial health care law requiring every individual to own health insurance.

The court ruled that the remainder of the health care law is within constitutional boundaries.

“The individual mandate exceeds Congress’s enumerated commerce power and is unconstitutional,” wrote Chief Judge Joel Dubina.

“This economic mandate 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,” he added.

Twenty six states brought the case against the US government, and the court’s judges ruled 2-1 in favor of the states.

The law, extending coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, has been bitterly debated and challenged across the United States since Congress passed it last year.

Some 16 states have passed binding legislation opposing elements of the health reform bill.

Legal experts predict that the US Supreme Court will ultimately decide the matter, but that could take months or even years.