U.S. President Donald Trump's administration petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the Obamacare law introduced by his predecessor that added millions to the healthcare safety net, seeking to scrap coverage during the novel coronavirus crisis.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco, in a filing late on Thursday, argued for the administration that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) - one of former Democratic President Barack Obama's signature achievements - became invalid after the previous, Republican-led Congress axed parts of it.
"No further analysis is necessary; once the individual mandate and the guaranteed-issue and community-rating provisions are invalidated, the remainder of the ACA cannot survive," Francisco wrote, adding that lawmakers in 2017 did not show that they intended for the ACA to continue "in the absence of these three integral provisions."