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Atlanta, GA – Today the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 opinion that the individual mandate in Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”) exceeds the authority of Congress and is unconstitutional. The court also ruled that the remainder of the law could continue in effect. The Court ruled that Congress cannot “mandate that individuals enter into contracts with private insurance companies for the purchase of an expensive product from the time they are born until the time they die.” The Eleventh Circuit case involved 26 states. Liberty Counsel’s case, Liberty University v. Geithner, was argued on May 10, 2011, at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A ruling on that case has not yet been issued.

There are three interwoven provisions of ObamaCare – the guaranteed issue which requires that all pre-existing conditions be covered, the removal of community rating which prevents insurance companies from balancing coverage risks, and the mandate for individuals and employers. The former two cannot work without the mandate. Without the mandate, the other two requirements of ObamaCare will collapse the insurance industry. Seven states have attempted the guaranteed issue and removal of community rating without the mandate and the attempts in all seven states failed because the insurance industry collapses under such a system. With the mandate gone and the rest of the law intact, ObamaCare will cause health insurance to collapse, thus necessitating a repeal of the law or a total government takeover of the health insurance market, which would be a Medicare or Medicaid on steroids.

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, said, “Today’s ruling striking down the individual mandate is welcome news. The federal government does not have the authority to force individuals to purchase health insurance. ObamaCare represents the biggest government intrusion into the private lives of every American. The Court of Appeals should have thrown out ObamaCare in its entirety. Without the individual mandate, the law will cause the insurance industry to implode. With or without the mandate, ObamaCare has been a catastrophe.”

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