Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading a 20-state federal lawsuit to completely end the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Part of 2017’s Republican-led tax plan did away with the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that required individuals to have health insurance or pay a penalty tax.
Paxton argued because the provision no longer exists, the Affordable Care Act is now unconstitutional.
“It eliminated that penalty and therefore the only thing that kept Obamacare alive was the fact that Congress had taxing power, and the Obama administration tied the mandate to that,” Paxton said. “Well, now that taxing power is gone, so the mandate is standing by itself as completely unconstitutional, so Obamacare should be struck down.”
Paxton said the Affordable Care Act has increased the individual cost of insurance. He says since 2013, the cost of health care premiums has risen by 105 percent.
Ryan Poppe can be reached at rpoppe@tpr.org or on Twitter @RyanPoppe1
