Pennsylvania Health Insurance Laws

Judge Invalidates Health-Care Act's Insurance-Buying Mandate

(Updates with Justice Department comment in sixth paragraph.)

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The requirement in the 2010 health- care law that most Americans buy insurance or pay a fine is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled.

U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner in Harrisburg today said Congress exceeded its powers under the federal Constitution when it included in the act President Barack Obama signed last year the provision requiring almost all Americans to have medical insurance starting in 2014.

“The federal government,” Conner said, “is one of limited enumerated powers, and Congress’s efforts to remedy the ailing health-care and health-insurance markets must fit squarely within the boundaries of those powers.”

Three federal appeals courts have weighed in on the issue since June 29. A Cincinnati three-judge panel backed the provision 2-1, while one in Atlanta rejected it by the same vote. The U.S. appeals court in Richmond on Sept. 8 declined to rule on two separate challenges, citing jurisdictional grounds.

The Harrisburg ruling, if appealed, would be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which hasn’t yet ruled on the merits of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

‘Constitutional’ Act

“The Department of Justice believes -- as appellate courts have already held -- that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional,” Tracy Schmaler, a spokeswoman for the federal agency, said in an e-mailed statement.

She declined to say whether the U.S. would appeal Conner’s decision.

The case before Conner was filed by Gregory Bachman, 56, and Barbara Goudy-Bachman, 48, a married couple with two children, living in Etters, Pennsylvania, according to the court’s ruling.

Pennsylvania bishops blast HHS contraception rule as indefensible ...

“There is no reasonable defense for a coercive approach to contraception in health insurance coverage,” Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said in a Sept. 29 statement. “The Health and Human Services mandate is not simply ‘bad’ social policy, but precedent-setting in its disregard for conscience rights.”

The Department of Health and Human Services’ proposed rules, formulated in response to the 2010 federal health care law, were announced Aug. 1 and are open to comment until Sept. 30. They require nearly all new health plans, including those of most religious groups, to cover government-approved methods of contraception and surgical sterilization.

In their official public response filed with the Department of Health and Human Services, the Pennsylvania bishops noted that the supposed “religious exemption” included in the mandate “fails miserably to assure that religious conscience is protected.”

The exemption for religious groups, they said, “is so narrowly crafted that hospitals, universities, religious affiliated social service agencies, Catholic dioceses, parishes and even Catholic elementary schools would be subject to the contraceptive/sterilization mandate.”

“Ignoring the broad nature of the Church’s religious ministries and the care, services and education provided to a diverse group by mandating coverage is an unwarranted attack on religion in general,” they said.

Besides the effort to force Catholic ministries to provide contraception and sterilization, the rule also raises the question of government deciding whether an institution is “religious” in nature or not. The Pennsylvania Catholic Health Association, which joined the bishops in condemning the contraceptive mandate, described the government’s attempt to define religious activity as “fraught with danger.

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