To download the table that shows increases in the number of uninsured people by congressional district, click here.
The lawsuit brought by Republican state officials to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA), Texas v. Azar,continues to work its way through the U.S. legal system. In December 2018, a right-wing district court judge in Texas sided with opponents of the law, finding that the entire ACA should be struck down. Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit will hear oral arguments and decide whether to overturn the district court’s partisan decision. Worryingly, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals also appears to be questioning whether the defenders of the ACA have standing to intervene in the earlier ruling. Regardless of how the court rules, the odds are high that the case will then be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. For the foreseeable future, the ACA is in danger.
If the lawsuit ultimately succeeds, it would have devastating consequences for nearly every American who has health coverage, whether through their employer, the individual market, Medicare, or Medicaid. The Urban Institute estimates that overturning the ACA would result in almost 20 million more Americans being uninsured and would lower federal health care spending by $135 billion in 2019 alone. In this column, the Center for American Progress estimates the increase in the number of uninsured people by congressional district that would occur if the ACA were struck down.
Background on Texas v. Azar
Texas v. Azar is a politically charged attempt to repeal the ACA. In February 2018, Texas and 19 other states filed a lawsuit arguing that the ACA is unconstitutional. Their widely panned legal argument claimed that because the Republican-sponsored Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the individual mandate penalty, it rendered the rest of the ACA invalid.