In a majority decision, an Atlanta appeals court ruled Friday that the mandatory insurance provision of President Obama's recent health care legislation is unconstitutional. Certainly the most contentious issue in an already controversial congressional overhaul of the nation's health care system, the mandate calls for all Americans to buy health insurance or face penalties. The Atlanta court found that all other provisions of the health care law are constitutional.
Georgia is not the first state to challenge the health care bill. Utah was one of the first to fight the bill, led by Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, in a lawsuit with several other states.
The legislation was also challenged in a Michigan appeals court, where judges found the mandate to be legal under their interpretation of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. This is in contrast to a recent ruling in Florida, where the expansive bill was found to be unconstitutional in its entirety.
The bill initially had provisions that were intended to offer other choices for individuals who could not afford private health insurance, but these were stricken from the legislation early on amid bitter political opposition. One such provision was the "public option", which would have extended government insurance policies to citizens as an alternative to expensive private insurance.
Similar cases are being heard in other states as well, but the final say will come eventually in the Supreme Court.
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