Fed Judge: Mandatory Health Insurance Unconstitutional

Morguefile photo

Ruling on health reform law exposes numerous outstanding issues surrounding the most lobbied and most politicized public law in history.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson ruled Monday that a central requirement in the health care reform law is unconstitutional. Hudson ruled that requiring people to purchase private health insurance overextended Congress's authority contained in the Constitution's commerce clause.

Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli II filed the lawsuit against the federal government. The health insurance requirement is to take effect in 2014.

The ruling brings up many questions, including:

• Should  the judge have recused himself as part owner of a GOP consulting firm? (Considering, you know, that the GOP has made overturning reform a party platform.)

• Will the insurance industry not retreat, but reload their lobbying efforts to retain the millions of new customers promised under the law? 

• Could this challenge to the reform law been avoided if a public option were included in the law? On the face of it (from a non-lawyer) there does seem to be something fundamentally wrong with being forced to buy a service from a private company.