NEJM January 30, 2020
On December 18, 2019, just 3 days after the close of open enrollment on the exchanges and on the same day the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump, a conservative appeals court handed the President a major victory in his crusade against the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Over a stern dissent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit declared that the law’s individual mandate is unconstitutional and that the entire rest of the law might therefore be invalid.
The full consequences of the ruling are not yet clear. Instead of deciding for itself how much or how little of the ACA could stand, the appeals court asked the Texas judge who originally decided the case to take...