Appeals court upholds healthcare law

The new healthcare law President Obama signed last year survived its first test before a federal appellate court Wednesday, as the Sixth U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati concluded that the law’s insurance requirement is constitutional.

“We find that the minimum coverage provision is a valid exercise of legislative power by Congress under the Commerce Clause,” the judges said in rejecting a legal challenge to the law by the conservative Thomas More Law Center.

The Thomas More lawsuit has not attracted as much attention as two other legal challenges being pushed by Republican state officials in Virginia and other states. Those suits are being reviewed by federal appellate courts in Atlanta and Virginia.

And few legal experts expect that the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be settled until it is reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, likely next year.

But the ruling Wednesday nonetheless marked a legal victory for the Obama administration and its Democratic allies who have argued that Congress could require Americans to get health insurance starting in 2014.

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