the judge did not throw out the entire law, just the mandate requirement, and he rejected the request from virginia's republican attorney general for an injunction to block implementation of the law.
without a mandate i think insurance companies will increase premiums and find additional ways to exclude people from coverage who cost them money because they have to pay for their care.
the white house is saying that without an individual mandate the provisions requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions and barring insurers from dropping sick people are probably unlikely to go into effect.
i'm almost certain this will go to the supreme court.
december 13, 2010
judge voids key part of health care law
a federal district judge in virginia ruled on monday that the keystone provision in the obama health care law is unconstitutional, becoming the first court in the country to invalidate any part of the sprawling act and ensuring that appellate courts will receive contradictory opinions from below. ...
... in a 42-page opinion issued in richmond, va., judge hudson wrote that the law's central requirement that most americans obtain health insurance exceeds the regulatory authority granted to congress under the commerce clause of the constitution.
the insurance mandate is central to the law's mission of covering more than 30 million uninsured because insurers argue that only by requiring healthy people to have policies can they afford to treat those with expensive chronic conditions. ...
