While the Affordable Care Act may be the law of the land, passed by President Barack Obama in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court more than a year ago, a physician trade association wants to put the health reform law on hold because it didn't go through the proper channels in the legislative process.
On Jan. 10, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments from attorneys representing the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. They noted that because the several components of the health care overhaul resulted from the U.S. Senate rather than the House of Representatives, as mandated by Article I of the Constitution, the law should be deemed unconstitutional and put on hold.
"If the Constitution means anything, it means that the U.S. Senate may not initiate tax increases," said Janet Orient, M.D., executive director of the national physician organization. "Yet that is precisely what ObamaCare is: a tax increase initiated by the Senate, in violation of the Origination Clause."
She added that because the circumventing of the law, the health care law should be suspended until the flaws in the bill are corrected and go through the proper channels.
The Associated Press reported that AAPS initially went to the Supreme Court, asking the highest court of the land to put an emergency stay on the law. The request was denied.
The individual mandate of the ACA is currently in effect. The one that requires large business owners to provide employee benefits to their workers will not be enforced until 2015 after the White House postponed the requirement this past summer.
There's some disagreement among consumers as to whether they think the ACA is a success or failure. The Gallup poll found that 22 percent of respondents thought it was the Obama administration's biggest achievement, while 36 percent viewed it as their most substantial blunder.
