Jon Snow. Glenn from The Walking Dead. Obamacare.
All have died before, only to return for another season. And the latest “fatal” blow delivered by a Texas judge to the Affordable Care Act is no different. Obamacare will survive.
In a sense, the decision from U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor is straightforward. The ACA was upheld by the Supreme Court because its “individual mandate”—the requirement to either buy insurance or pay a penalty fee—was a kind of tax. But in 2017, Congress repealed the fee provision. So now the ACA can’t be construed as a tax. Therefore it’s unconstitutional.