Politics

Four groups file amicus brief against Obamacare

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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Four free market advocacy groups filed a 39-page amicus brief to the Supreme Court this week supporting the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that the individual mandate in President Obama’s health care reform law is unconstitutional.

The groups are the Pacific Research Institute, Benjamin Rush Society, Docs 4 Patient Care and the Galen Institute.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act in March.

“This decision will determine not just the fate of a ruinous health care policy, but the behavior of the federal government from this point forward,” said Dr. Hal Scherz, founder of Docs 4 Patient Care. “If it can force individuals to purchase a product, then there is no limit to what the government can force its citizens to do.”

Docs 4 Patient Care is an organization made up of physicians whose mission includes protecting “patients’ freedom of choice.”

In August the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the individual mandate exceeds the power granted by the commerce clause in the Constitution.

In addition to arguing that the mandate is unconstitutional, the brief argues that it also won’t work. (RELATED: Full coverage of the Affordable Care Act)

“The brief demonstrates the fallacy of the government’s claim that the individual mandate cures any problem of shifting costs of uncompensated care to private insurance and explains why Congress lacked authority under the Constitution to impose the mandate,” said Jonn Hoff of the Galen Institute.

The organization describes itself as a “public policy research organization devoted to advancing ideas and policies that would create a vibrant, patient-centered health sector.”

The Pacific Research Institute describes itself as having “championed freedom, opportunity, and individual responsibility through free-market policy solutions.”

And the Benjamin Rush Society says the organization “aims to unite those across the political spectrum who believe that the profession of medicine calls its practitioners to serve their patients, rather than the government.”

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