Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman issued the following statement after a federal judge in Virginia ruled the provision of the Affordable Care Act that mandates individuals to buy health insurance as unconstitutional:
“There have been almost 20 cases filed challenging health reform. All the others that have come to judgment have been dismissed. We always knew that there was a chance that one or two judges would buck the clear legal consensus that the law is constitutional, just as some judges once ruled that Social Security was illegal.
“But one way or another, this question is clearly headed to the Supreme Court. When it gets there, I am confident that cooler heads will prevail and that the health reform law will be upheld in full.”