Three U.S. District judges presiding over legal challenges to the landmark federal healthcare law have held financial investments in the healthcare industry, which has a lot riding on the outcome of the cases, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of their latest available financial disclosure forms.
The investments include individual stocks and mutual funds with holdings in private health insurance companies, companies selling healthcare products or pharmaceutical firms, according to the forms the judges filed in 2009 and 2010.
Judicial ethics experts disagree about the significance of the judges’ investments.
As the lawsuits crawl through the judicial system, the first ruling against the healthcare reform law came December 13 by U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson of the Eastern District of Virginia, who ruled that the individual mandate requiring people to buy some form of insurance invited an “unbridled exercise of the federal police powers.”
The Huffington Post reported earlier this year that Hudson in 2008 earned between $5,000 and $15,000 in dividends from Campaign Solutions, a political communications firm that did work for healthcare reform opponents, including Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Hudson earned the same amount in 2009, according to his most recent financial disclosure form.
At least one of the healthcare lawsuits is expected eventually to land at the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court agrees to take one of the cases, it could have far-reaching implications for the future of healthcare coverage for millions of Americans.
The federal judges who reported health-related financial holdings include:
- Senior Judge Gladys Kessler, appointed by President William Clinton to the bench in the District of Columbia, reported this year that she owns between $100,000 and $250,000 of shares in the Vanguard Health Care Fund, which lists the UnitedHealth Group as its sixth-largest holding. Kessler received between $2,500 to $5,000 in dividends last year. She also reported dividends of less than $1,000 from stock in Covidien, a global healthcare products company. She is hearing Mead v. Holder.
- Judge Michael Schneider, appointed by President George W. Bush to the bench in the Eastern District of Texas, owns Covidien stock that he valued at less than $15,000, according to his 2008 financial disclosure form filed in 2009, which was the latest available. Schneider is presiding over Physician Hospitals of America v. Sebelius, a suit which claims the healthcare law discriminates against physician-owned hospitals and violates constitutional protections for due process and equal protection. Schneider’s office this week declined a request from the center to release his latest disclosure form.
- Keith Starrett, appointed by George W. Bush to the bench in the Southern District of Mississippi, owns stock in the Laboratory Corporation of America and Medtronic that he valued at less than $15,000 each, among other healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, according to the disclosure form he filed earlier this year. LabCorp is one of the leading blood analysis and genetic testing companies in the nation. Medtronic is a medical technology company. Starrett is hearing Walters v. Holder, a lawsuit filed by Mississippi’s lieutenant governor and 10 state residents alleging the mandate for individuals to buy insurance violates several constitutional protections.
Click here to read the rest of the story. This story posted on Healthcare Finance News courtesy of The Center for Public Integrity.