Judge skeptical of ACA's standing without effective individual mandate penalty

Modern Healthcare: A federal judge today seemed skeptical of arguments that the Affordable Care Act can stand without an effective penalty for the individual mandate.

In a half-full Texas courtroom, Democratic state attorneys general Wednesday tried to persuade U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor that Congress' zeroing out of the tax penalty should not invalidate the entire law. O'Connor, who spent more time probing the argument of Democratic lawyers than that of the GOP state attorneys general who filed the suit to invalidate the law, promised the parties that he would issue a ruling as quickly as possible.

Read article