Archive

Nearly three weeks ago, in Coons v. Geithner, a federal judge dismissed parts of a challenge to Obamacare’s “death panel” officially known as the “Independent Payment Advisory Board” (IPAB). Read more »

In 2010, Obamacare limited the expansion of physician-owned hospitals (POHs) and banned the establishment of new ones. By the end of 2010, Obamacare forced up to 84 new POHs in various stages of development to be abandoned. These hospitals would have provided nearly 30,000 jobs. Read more »

This past weekend PoliticoPro reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in Physician Hospitals of America v. Sebelius, upheld Obamacare’s stifling limits on physician-owned hospitals. A closer look at the case shows this report to be inaccurate.

On March 31, 2011, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled that Section 6001 of Obamacare, which bans new physician-owned hospitals and places severe restrictions on expansions of such hospitals, was constitutional as applied to the plaintiffs of the case: Physician Hospitals of America and Texas Spine & Joint Hospital (TSJH).

Contrary to the PoliticoPro report, the Fifth Circuit did not uphold the district court’s decision, but vacated it. Furthermore, the Fifth Circuit did not even discuss the merits of the district court’s holding that Section 6001 of Obamacare is constitutional. Instead, the Fifth Circuit ruled that, under the facts of this case, federal courts do not have jurisdiction to decide the matter. Read more »

Yesterday, plaintiffs against a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate sent a letter to the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan. The letter brought to the court's attention the injunction a federal district court in Colorado granted in the case of Newland v. Sebelius on Friday. Read more »

Following Chief Justice Roberts’ decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate as a “tax,” there are 23 cases left challenging another mandate from the ACA, which has been dubbed the Health & Human Services (HHS) mandate. The HHS mandate’s constitutionality is being challenged, not under the limitations imposed on Congress by the Commerce Clause, but by the First Amendment’s assertion of each citizen’s right to religious freedom. The plaintiffs challenge a regulation that requires “certain preventive services” to be provided by employers. According to Secretary Sebelius, these “preventive services” include contraceptives and abortifacients, but the “exemption” for religious employers applies much too narrowly. Read more »