Tag Archives: SCOTUS

ACA Implications for Health Insurers

Today’s ruling provides health insurers a window of certainty as they prepare for the reformed marketplace in 2014. The question is how long will that window remain open? That question cannot be answered until we know the outcome of the 2012 elections. The trillion-dollar coverage expansion will be on the table by default if the president is re-elected and the “grand bargain” bipartisan deficit reduction scenario re-emerges. The president will of course strive to protect the funding for his signature law, but nothing can be considered safe at a time when Washington is running trillion-dollar deficits for as for as the eye can see.

Posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 By Mike Tuffin
Catogories Health Policy | Also tagged ACA, exchanges, health insurance, health insurers, Supreme Court | Leave a comment

Reactions to SCOTUS Upholding the ACA

It is with great relief and high hopes that I write this blog after the Supreme Court upholds virtually all of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). I think this decision removes a great deal of uncertainty and helps spur investment and innovation to make our health care system better: most affordable, more convenient and more likely to deliver consistently good outcomes. Finally, we can join the rest of the developed world with a system that provides health care for all its citizens. We can jettison the days of haphazard access to emergency room care without access to the care needed to keep people out of high-cost emergency rooms. Moreover, workers will not be locked in jobs simply to keep their health coverage with the advent of Exchanges.

Posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 By HealthScope
Catogories Health Policy | Also tagged ACA, Affordable Care Act, Bob Kocher | 2 Comments

The U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on ACA – What it Means

As many people throughout the United States and internationally anxiously awaited the U.S. Supreme Court to issue its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, the Court issued its ruling this morning to uphold the mandate. But the Court used a very different legal basis than argued; it’s a tax and Congress has the authority to tax. This makes the next few months clear. Republicans now have a very specific target – the mandate is a tax and politically being anti/lower tax has always been a good and often winning strategy for Republicans. So look for the GOP to hit the tax issue hard in the months leading up to the November U.S. election. They will tie the mandate tax (and other taxes in the law) to the poor economy and slow job growth. And they will then say the only way to get the economy back on its feet is by electing a new president and GOP majorities in the House and Senate and then they will get rid of these taxes. This will energize the base. Calling for lower taxes always does.

Posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 By Bill Pierce
Catogories Health Policy | Also tagged ACA, health care act, majority, mandate, Medicaid, states, Supreme Court, tax, U.S. Supreme Court | Leave a comment

What Happens if the Court Overturns Health Care Reform?

In Washington, we tend to over-analyze things. Surf through cable news channels and you will inevitably hear pundits and strategists straining to devise fashionably counter-intuitive interpretations of current events. That will surely be the case regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Still, there will be no way to spin a ruling overturning health reform as anything but an historic, defining loss for President Obama. Such a ruling would surely energize Democratic activists. And, yes, certain health policy issues that will re-emerge, such as pre-existing conditions, are favorable for the president. But the bottom line is that this ruling will mean that the president devoted more than three years to waging a bitterly divisive, partisan health care battle during a tough economy and emerged with…absolutely nothing to show for it.

Posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2012 By Mike Tuffin
Catogories Health Policy | Also tagged ACA, Affordable Care Act, health reform, Mike Tuffin | Leave a comment

Beyond the Supreme Court Decision on Health Care

As the day draws closer to the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) announcement regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the speculation over what it will be and what the reactions of the various stakeholders will be grows more intense. And while this may be a great parlor game, it is not helpful for that ultimate question that will follow the decision -- "Now what?"

Posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 By Bill Pierce
Catogories Health Policy | Also tagged ACA, Affordable Care Act, Health Care | Leave a comment

SCOTUS Takes Up Health Care Law

Earlier today, the Supreme Court of the United States announced that it would take up the case of the constitutionality (among other issues) of President Obama’s health care law. This will likely be not only the case of the year, but also perhaps the most important case in decades. Oral arguments are expected to be heard sometime this spring, and a decision is possible in late June – right as the 2012 presidential campaign really starts to heat up. Just like the political and legislative path of the law, the decision to hear this case has a few interesting twists and turns. The basic case taken up by the Supreme Court is the Florida-based lawsuit brought by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). But the Court also gave itself an out, if it chooses. One of the issues it wants argued for and against is the Anti-Injunction Act, which two lower courts have used to dismiss cases against the law.