Health reform facing early legal tests

Reporting for Kaiser Health News, in collaboration with USA Today, Rick Schmitt writes: "Matt Sissel of Iowa City, Iowa, proudly served in Iraq as a combat medic. But he says he objects to being 'conscripted' into an overhauled federal health care system. … The uninsured artist is riled about a provision in the new health law that would require him to purchase insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014. Last July, he filed a lawsuit to have the landmark act declared unconstitutional. … In attacking the law in the courts, Sissel has plenty of company. A number of interest groups, state officials and ordinary citizens are seeking to have the health care law struck down in federal court, and action is heating up" (Schmitt, 10/6). Read the entire story.

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.