This is an OZY Special Briefing, an extension of the Presidential Daily Brief. The Special Briefing tells you what you need to know about an important issue, individual or story that is making news. Each one serves up an interesting selection of facts, opinions, images and videos in order to catch you up and vault you ahead. WHAT TO KNOW What happened? Federal Judge Reed O’Connor of Texas made headlines Friday when he struck down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare. He deemed that mandating the purchase of health insurance was unconstitutional — and thus that the whole law should be tossed out. O’Connor’s ruling is at odds with a 2012 Supreme Court ruling the mandate constitutional. The reasoning? That it’s within Congress’ purview to impose tax penalties. But the group of Republican governors and state officials who brought the current lawsuit argue that since the penalty for not buying coverage has been reduced to zero, the mandate is no longer a tax and thus is now not allowed under U.S. law. Why does it matter? If O’Connor’s decision is upheld — Obamacare’s protections will stay in place while an anticipated appeal is pending — about 17 million Americans could lose their insurance. An appeal would first have to make its way through the 5th Circuit Court, and from there to the Supreme Court. But the timing of the controversial ruling, which came one day before the end of the main open-enrollment period on Dec. 15, may have confused people and could lower sign-up numbers even for those with extensions. Enrollment is already down 11 percent, likely the result of changes to the attendant tax penalties and a slashed publicity budget that hurt advertising efforts. |