WASHINGTON: A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the US health care law known as Obamacare is unconstitutional — a ruling that opposition Democrats condemned on Saturday and vowed to appeal.

US District Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling came on the eve of the Saturday deadline to sign up for 2019 coverage in the federal health care programme, known officially as the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The White House expects the case to be appealed to the Supreme Court, saying in a statement that “pending the appeal process, the law remains in place”. At the US Supreme Court, five justices in the nine-judge court who voted to uphold Obamacare in a separate case in 2012 are still on the bench.

Conservative Republicans have long opposed former president Barack Obama’s landmark health care plan, which he signed into law in 2010. President Donald Trump made abolishing the programme one of his main campaign pledges.

The Texas-based judge said that the full Obamacare programme was unconstitutional because in last year’s tax overhaul, Congress eliminated a penalty for people who failed to sign up for the programme if they did not already have their own health insurance.

The 2012 case was over whether such a penalty was legal — but now that it is gone, O’Connor says the whole ACA should be stricken down because that provision is “the keystone” of the programme.

Trump lost no time in tweeting his delight at the court’s ruling on a complaint brought by several Republican attorneys general and two Republican governors.

“Wow, but not surprisingly, ObamaCare was just ruled UNCONSTITUTIONAL by a highly respected judge in Texas. Great news for America!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump urged the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the House of Representatives speaker-designate, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, to “pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare”.

Angry Democrats vowed to fight back as they blamed Republicans for what they see as a debacle that will leave millions of Americans without health care.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2018