NWLC Responds To D.C. Circuit Court Ruling On Affordable Care Act

(Washington, D.C.) Earlier today, in a decision written by Reagan-appointee Senior Judge Lawrence Silberman, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion affirming the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The National Women’s Law Center filed an amicus brief in the case.

Through this decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals joined the majority of Courts of Appeals in rejecting a constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act. As the court stated, just as the Commerce Clause of the Constitution gives Congress authority to pass civil rights laws such as those requiring restaurants and hotels to serve all, regardless of race, it also gives Congress power to adopt the individual responsibility provision of the ACA, which requires virtually all individuals to obtain health insurance by 2014; subsidies will be available for millions of low- and moderate-income people.

The following is a statement by Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center:

“The D.C. Circuit recognized that, under decades of established precedent, Congress had the authority to pass the Affordable Care Act. This decision upholds enormous gains for access to health care for women. Under the ACA, sex discrimination in health care programs receiving federal funding is illegal, breastfeeding mothers enjoy new rights at work, adult children under 26 can get health care coverage through their parents’ health insurance plans, and insurers may not drop people’s coverage if they get sick, or deny children coverage because of pre-existing conditions. By 2014, a host of new guarantees and protections will come into force, expanding access to critical health insurance for women and their families.

“Today's decision is a victory for the millions of American women and families the new health care law has helped and will help by putting affordable health care within reach and ensuring that being a woman will no longer be considered a pre-existing condition. This decision is not just an abstract constitutional argument; it is about the lives and health of women and their families.”

For more information, visit: http://www.nwlc.org/resource/health-care-law-litigation 

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