Individual Mandate of ACA is Unconstitutional: Discussion of Court Cases

Important To Know: If you plan to attend, you should be sure to e-mail Rick Hindmand at rhindmand@mcdonaldhopkins.com so that your name can be placed on the guest list for the security desk.

6 to 630pm - Networking and Food

630pm to 8pm - Presenter: Jonathan Siner

Summary

State of Texas v. United States of America, #19-10011 (5th Cir. 12-20-19), affirming in part, vacating in part, and remanding Texas v. United States, 340 F. Supp. 3d 579 (N.D. Tex. 2018).

This will be a discussion of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals' recent decision affirming the decision of a U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas that the Individual Mandate of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. The District Court found that since the Individual Mandate was inseverable from the ACA, the entire ACA was unconstitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals did not go that far, but remanded the case back to the District Court to examine the ACA "with a finer tooth-comb" to see what could be severable in the ACA and what was inseverable. Meanwhile and simultaneously, the California Attorney General and other States are appealing the 5th Circuit decision invalidating the Individual Mandate directly to the U.S. Supreme Court and have petitioned the Supreme Court for an expedited ruling.

This discussion will review the above Court cases, the relevant provisions of the Affordable Care Act, and the provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 which reduced the ACA tax to zero for failure to purchase health insurance under the Individual Mandate.

About Jonathan P. Siner

Jonathan P. Siner is an attorney who practices law in Chicago. He received his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. He has an LLM in Taxation from De Paul University School of Law in Chicago and is presently enrolled in the Master of Laws (LLM) in Health Law program at The Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. He has done legal work in compliance and HIPAA matters for the Erie Family Health Centers in Chicago. Mr. Siner is also a member of the Education Committee of the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys. His article, “The Affordable Care Act Is Held Unconstitutional by a Federal District Court in Texas” was recently published in the 2020 Health Law and Compliance Update (Wolters Kluwer, 11-14-19).