Wednesday, June 22, 2011
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — An attorney for a New Jersey doctors’ group is arguing in court the new federal health care reform law is unconstitutional.
A lawsuit filed by New Jersey Physicians Inc. and an unidentified patient challenges the law’s requirement that citizens purchase insurance.
The suit was dismissed by a federal judge in December. The judge ruled the patient couldn’t sue because he could be covered by an employer’s health plan by 2014.
In arguments before a federal appeals panel in Newark on Wednesday, plaintiffs’ attorney Robert Conroy argued patients shouldn’t be required to purchase insurance. Conroy claims physicians will be harmed because their fees could decrease.
The judges questioned whether those claims were speculative.
More than two dozen states have challenged the health care overhaul.