This past December, District Judge Reed O’Conner released his ruling in the case Texas v. United States. The case questioned the constitutionality of the ACA’s individual mandate after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the individual mandate penalty to $0. The judge ruled that the mandate without tax penalty was unconstitutional, and as a result, so was the entire ACA.
It is expected that the ruling will be appealed and likely tied up for months before ultimately appearing before the Supreme Court. The ruling itself does not repeal the ACA, which will remain unchanged. At this time, coverage and employer obligations for 2019 remain unaffected by the ruling.