N.J. Physicians Inc. v. Obama

757 F.Supp.2d 502

NEW JERSEY PHYSICIANS, INC., Mario A. Criscito, M.D., and Patient Roe, Plaintiffs,

v.Barack H. OBAMA, President of the United States, in his official capacity; the Hon. Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, in his official capacity; the Hon. Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States, in his official capacity; and the Hon. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, in her official capacity, Defendants.

Civil Action No. 10–1489 (SDW)(MCA).

United States District Court, D. New Jersey.

Dec. 8, 2010.

Robert J. Conroy, Conroy & Schoppmann, PC, Steven I. Kern, Kern, Augustine, Conroy & Schoppmann, P.C., Bridgewater, NJ, for Plaintiffs.Michelle Renee Bennett, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

OPINION

WIGENTON, District Judge.

Before the Court is Defendants' Motion to Dismiss pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). This Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 2201, and 2202. Venue is proper pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391. The Motion is decided without oral argument pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 78. For the reasons stated below, this Court grants Defendants' Motion to Dismiss.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This suit—one of many filed throughout the country—raises a Constitutional challenge to the recently enacted federal healthcare reform law, known as the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (“Act”), Pub.L. No. 111–148, 124 Stat. 119 (2010), amended by Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Pub.L. No. 111–152, 124 Stat. 1029 (2010). The Act was signed into law by Defendant President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Plaintiffs New Jersey Physicians, Inc., (“NJP”), Mario A. Criscito, M.D., (“Dr. Criscito”), and Patient Roe (“Roe”) (collectively “Plaintiffs”), seek a declaration that the Act is not a valid exercise of Congress's power under the Commerce Clause or any of the federal government's enumerated powers. (Pls.' Compl. ¶¶ 1–3, 17, 22.) Additionally, Plaintiffs allege that the Act violates their Fifth Amendment rights. ( Id. at ¶ 20.) NJP is a non-profit New Jersey corporation which “advocates for its physician members and their patients.” (Pls.' Compl. ¶ 1.) Its “primary purpose [is] the protection and advancement of patient access to affordable, quality healthcare.” ( Id.) Dr. Criscito, a cardiologist, is a member of NJP, ( Id. at ¶ 2), and Roe is Dr. Criscito's uninsured patient. ( Id. at ¶ 3.)

According to Congress's finding, “[n]ational health spending is projected to increase from $2,500,000,000,000, or 17.6 percent of the economy, in 2009 to $4,700,000,000 in 2019.” §§ 1501(a)(2)(B), 10106(a); see also Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director, Cong. Budget Office (“CBO”), Economic Effects of the March Health Legislation, 5 (Oct. 22, 2010) (“[t]otal spending on healthcare now accounts for about 15 percent of [the] GDP, and CBO projects that it will represent more than 25 percent by 2035.”). Additionally, Congress found that sixty-two percent “of all personal bankruptcies are caused in part by medical expenses.” §§ 1501(a)(2)(G), 10106(a). Consequently, the purpose of the Act is to provide affordable health insurance, and to reduce the number of uninsured Americans “and the escalating costs they impose on the healthcare system.” Thomas More Law Ctr. v. Obama, 720 F.Supp.2d 882, 886 (E.D.Mich.2010).

As part of the effort to provide affordable health insurance and lower the number of uninsured Americans, § 10106(a), the Act contains a “minimum essential coverage” provision, which states: “[a]n applicable individual shall for each month beginning after 2013 ensure that the individual, and any dependent of the individual who is an applicable individual, is covered under minimum essential coverage for such month.” § 1501.¹ Congress included this mandatory minimum coverage because it found that “if there were no [such] requirement, many individuals would wait to purchase health insurance until they needed care,” and would therefore undermine the purpose behind the Act. §§ 1501(a)(2)(G), 10106(a). Furthermore, Congress found that the “minimum essential coverage” requirement, in addition to the Act's other provisions, would lower the cost of health insurance by reducing “adverse selection and broaden[ing] the health insurance risk pool to include healthy individuals.” Id. Congress also determined that the minimum essential coverage provision “is essential to creating effective health insurance markets in which improved health insurance products that are guaranteed issue and do not exclude coverage of pre-existing conditions can be sold.” Id. It has been projected that by 2019 thirty-two million “fewer people will be uninsured because of the legislation.” Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director, Cong. Budget Office (“CBO”), Economic Effects of the March Health Legislation, 6 (Oct. 22, 2010).

MOTION TO DISMISS STANDARD

The adequacy of pleadings is governed by Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2), which requires that a complaint allege “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Additionally, an adequate complaint “requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do. Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level ....” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (internal citations omitted); see also Phillips v. County of Allegheny, 515 F.3d 224, 232 (3d Cir.2008) (stating that Rule 8 “requires a ‘showing,’ rather than a blanket assertion, of an entitlement to relief.”).

A Motion to Dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) “may be treated as either a facial or factual challenge to the court's subject matter jurisdiction.” Gould Elecs., Inc. v. United States, 220 F.3d 169, 176 (3d Cir.2000). If reviewing a “ ‘facial attack,’ which is based on the legal sufficiency of the claim, the Court ‘must only consider the allegations of the complaint and documents referenced therein ... in the light most favorable to the plaintiff.’ ” Brown v. U.S. Steel Corp., 2010 WL 4388075, at *2, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115503, at *5 (W.D.Pa. Oct. 29, 2010) (quoting Gould Elecs. Inc., 220 F.3d at 176); see also Pension Benefit Guar. Corp. v. White Consol. Indus., 998 F.2d 1192, 1196 (3d Cir.1993). On the other hand, if the Court is considering a “ ‘factual attack,’ where a challenge is based on the sufficiency of jurisdictional fact, ‘the Court is free to weigh the evidence and satisfy itself whether it has power to hear the case.’ ” Brown, 2010 WL 4388075, at *2, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115503, at *6 (quoting Carpet Grp. Int'l v. Oriental Rug Imps., 227 F.3d 62, 69 (3d Cir.2000)). Additionally, in a “factual attack” the reviewing court “accords plaintiff's allegations no presumption of truth,” Turicentro, S.A. v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 303 F.3d 293, 300 n. 4 (3d Cir.2002); see also Anjelino v. New York Times Co., 200 F.3d 73, 87 (3d Cir.1999), and “the existence of disputed material facts will not preclude the trial court from evaluating for itself the merits of jurisdictional claims.” Mortensen v. First Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 549 F.2d 884, 891 (3d Cir.1977).

However, in considering a Motion to Dismiss under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), the Court must “ ‘accept all factual allegations as true, construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, and determine whether, under any reasonable reading of the complaint, the plaintiff may be entitled to relief.’ ” Phillips, 515 F.3d at 231 (quoting Pinker v. Roche Holdings Ltd., 292 F.3d 361, 374 n. 7 (3d Cir.2002)). However, “the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions. Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, ––– U.S. ––––, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 1949, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955). As the Supreme Court has explained:

To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to “state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged. The plausibility standard is not akin to a “probability requirement,” but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully. Where a complaint pleads facts that are “merely consistent with” a defendant's liability, it “stops short of the line between possibility and plausibility of ‘entitlement to relief.’ ”

Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1949 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556–57, 127 S.Ct. 1955) (internal citations omitted). Determining whether the allegations in a complaint are “plausible” is “a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense.” Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. at 1950. If the “well-pleaded facts do not permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct,” the complaint should be dismissed for failing to “ ‘show[ ] that the pleader is entitled to relief’ ” as required by Rule 8(a)(2). Id.

DISCUSSION

I. Standing

Pursuant to Article III of the United States Constitution, the Court may exercise jurisdiction only where there is an actual case or controversy. Golden v. Zwickler, 394 U.S. 103, 108, 89 S.Ct. 956, 22 L.Ed.2d 113 (1969). “[S]tanding is an essential and unchanging part of the case-or-controversy requirement of Article III.” Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). “In essence, the question of standing is whether the litigant is entitled to have the court decide the merits of the dispute or of...