Albin Lohr-Jones/Pacific Press/Zuma
The Supreme Court will hear Texas v. United States, the case that threatens to undo Obamacare and leave 23 million Americans uninsured, on November 10—exactly one week after the presidential election.
The lawsuit, brought by Republican attorneys general, argues that the lack of a financial penalty tied to the individual mandate, which the GOP’s 2017 tax bill set to zero, invalidates the entirety of the Affordable Care Act. The Trump administration has helped boost the lawsuit, which, beyond ending the insurance mandate, could erase popular consumer protections such as bans on insurers discriminating against people with preexisting conditions or the ability for children to remain on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26.
Democrats have been pushing for the case to be heard before November 3 to keep the president’s opposition to the ACA in voters’ minds on Election Day. The decision to hold oral arguments for the case a week later could dampen how much it would influence Americans’ choices at the polls (though no matter when the court scheduled the hearing, any ruling was unlikely until after the next presidential inauguration).
