The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to invalidate Obamacare, which has provided insurance to many Americans.
Government lawyers said the act became invalid when the previous Republican-led Congress axed parts of it.
Democratic challenger Joe Biden attacked the move, saying Mr. Trump had put many lives in danger during the coronavirus pandemic.
Health care is going to be a key battleground within the November presidential election.
Some 20 million Americans could lose their health coverage if the court overturns the Affordable Care Act, which was introduced by Donald Trump's Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
Mr. Trump says the scheme costs an excessive amount of and has promised a special decide to replace it, preserving some popular elements of the prevailing law but covering fewer people.
Under the act, many people within us must purchase insurance or face a tax penalty.
But in 2017, Congress removed a key plank of the policy, eliminating the federal fine for those that didn't check-in, referred to as the "individual mandate".
In its filing to the Supreme Court late on Thursday, the Department of Justice argued "the individual mandate isn't severable from the remainder of the act".
As a result, it said, "the mandate is now unconstitutional as a result of Congress's elimination... of the penalty for non-compliance
Mr. Biden, who wants to rally the general public behind an expanded Affordable Care Act, said some coronavirus survivors could lose their comprehensive healthcare coverage if the act was overturned.
"They would live their lives caught during a vice between Donald Trump's twin legacies: his failure to guard the American people from the coronavirus, and his heartless crusade to require healthcare protections faraway from American families," Mr. Biden said.
The US has been badly hit by the pandemic, recording 2.4m confirmed coronavirus infections and 122,370 deaths - quite the other country
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