Health care ruling puts GOP in bind

Decision won’t affect law, pending appeals

WASHINGTON — A federal judge’s ruling that the Obama health law is unconstitutional has landed like a stink bomb among Republicans, who’ve seen the politics of health care flip as Americans increasingly value the overhaul’s core parts, including protections for pre-existing medical conditions and Medicaid for more low-income people.

While the decision by the Republican-appointed judge in Texas was sweeping, it has little immediate practical effect because the Affordable Care Act re-

mains in place while the legal battle continues, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court.

HealthCare.gov, the government’s site for signing up, accepted applications Saturday, the deadline in most states for enrolling for coverage next year, and those benefits will take effect as scheduled Jan. 1.

Medicaid expansion will proceed in Virginia, one of the latest states to accept that option. Employers will still be required to cover the young adult children of workers, and Medicare recipients will still get discounted prescription drugs.

But Republicans, still stinging from their loss of the House in the midterm elections, are facing a fresh political quandary after U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor said the entire 2010 health law was invalid.

Warnings about the

DREAMSTIME A ruling by a federal judge in Texas declaring the Obama health law unconstitutional has landed like a stink bomb among Republicans.