Obamacare - Pacific Legal Foundation

Help us declare Obamacare UNCONSTITUTIONAL

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 BACKGROUND

After attempts to declare the controversial law illegal, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the summer of 2012 that the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was essentially a tax. Today, Obamacare remains the law of the land. While there are still many lawsuits in play challenging aspects of Obamacare in the nation’s courts, only one — the constitutional challenge by Pacific Legal Foundation, Sissel v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, goes to the very heart of Obamacare — its taxes were illegally constituted.

Remember the bill that members of Congress “needed to pass so they could read its contents?” It features a tax penalty if Americans forgo purchasing health insurance under the individual mandate. The big problem that most Americans are unaware of? The Obamacare tax was created in the Senate, a violation of the Origination Clause of the United States Constitution, which says that all revenue raising bills must start in the House of Representatives.

What shell game did the architects of Obamacare employ? The Senate took a bill that had passed the House — the Service Members Home Ownership Act of 2009 — and removed every single word. In the empty shell, Obamacare supporters hatched the health care bill, with more than 2,000 pages of provisions, programs, mandates, and what we now know are taxes.
In our Obamacare challenge, we represent Iowa small business owner and former Iraq combat medic, Matt Sissel. “I’m in this case to defend freedom and the Constitution,” said Sissel. “I strongly believe that I should be free — and all Americans should be free — to decide how to provide for our medical needs, and not be forced to purchase a federally dictated health care plan. I’m very concerned about Congress ignoring the constitutional roadmap for enacting taxes, because those procedures are there for a purpose — to protect our freedom.”
PLF has filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to take the case. Sissel’s lawsuit is not the only case to challenge the ACA on Origination Clause grounds, but it is the first to reach the Supreme Court. In April, 2015, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit on the grounds that the plaintiff lacked standing, but noted that the case “present[s] issues of exceptional importance.” PLF is hopeful that the Supreme Court will agree to consider these important questions.