On April 1, the “individual mandate” feature of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) went into effect. We are now in a new era in which Americans are required to have health insurance, and the failure to do so is a violation of law.

Thus, in the coming weeks and months, Pennsylvania courts will be faced for the first time with plaintiffs seeking compensation from defendants for medical expenses for which they were obligated to have insurance coverage.