Supporters of the Affordable Care Act participate in a "Save Obamacare" rally in Los Angeles, California on March 23, 2017.
Ronen Tivony | NurPhoto | Getty Images
California and a coalition of other Democratic states, as well as the District of Columbia, asked the Supreme Court on Friday to review a lower court decision that held that Obamacare’s individual mandate was unconstitutional.
The twenty states urged the court in a petition to hear the case in its current term. If the court agrees to do so, a decision will come by the end of June, in the thick of the presidential election.
President Donald Trump, via the Department of Justice, backed the coalition of Republican states that challenged the law, which is formally known as the Affordable Care Act. Texas led the suit, which was opposed by Democratic-led states and the House of Representatives.
“While the Trump Administration fights to strip access to healthcare, our coalition moves forward to defend it — because a pre-existing medical condition should never again disqualify you from receiving affordable healthcare,” California’s attorney general Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
A federal appeals court ruled last month that the individual mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. But the court directed a lower court to decide whether the rest of the landmark health-care law should be tossed out.
Becerra pledged at the time that the Democratic-led states would “move swiftly to challenge this decision because this could mean the difference between life and death for so many Americans and their families.”
Health policy experts believed the appeals court decision would likely delay the Supreme Court hearing the landmark case until after the 2020 presidential election, with a ruling possible in 2021.
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