What Todays Ruling on Health Care Means to You (BLOG)

What health care ruling means A Virginia judge found a key part of the health care legislation unconstitutional; namely, the part that say...

What health care ruling means

A Virginia judge found a key part of the health care legislation unconstitutional; namely, the part that says Americans without health coverage must purchase their own, starting in 2014. Here's what that means for you:

Why does the judge say it’s against the law to mandate the purchase of insurance?

The mandate to purchase insurance "exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power," by violating the commerce clause of the United States Constitution, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson said in his ruling. He sided with the state of Virginia, which argued that it was unfair to require individuals to purchase a product from a private, i.e., insurance company.

What does it mean for customers who hoped to take advantage of the new benefits?

All of the provisions from the health care legislation that have already taken effect still stand. For example, anyone under the age of 26 may sign up for insurance coverage on his or her parents’ plan, and insurance companies are not allowed to deny coverage to children who already have chronic or acute medical problems. Check out this timeline from the Kaiser Family Foundation showing when the various provisions go into effect.

What's the bottom line?
Congress designed the mandate as part of a grand bargain: Insurance companies are required to cover people who are sick; in exchange, healthy people are required to have insurance. If there’s no mandate, people could simply wait until they get sick, before purchasing coverage. That would be prohibitively expensive for insurance companies. The mandate is not scheduled to go into effect until 2014. However, if higher courts uphold today’s ruling, the entire bill is likely to be in jeopardy. So be careful: Don't quit your job and assume that the government will help you out.


CNN