Breakdown of Supreme Court Affordable Care Act Ruling
The United States Supreme Court, on June 28, 2012, issued its ruling on the pair of cases challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Court’s ruling in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius will undoubtedly have historical implications on the federal government’s use of power under the Commerce and Taxing and Spending Clauses of the United States Constitution.
With regard to the ACA, the Court held the individual mandate a permissible use of the federal government’s taxing authority. The ACA’s Medicaid expansion, however, was found to exceed the federal government’s constitutional spending authority because it was unduly coercive on the states. Here we offer our breakdown and analysis of the Court’s opinion.
Affordable Care Act Timeline
Without further adieu — and just in time for the Supreme Court to rule on its constitutionality — we have published our Affordable Care Act (ACA) Timeline. Many available timelines regarding key provisions of the ACA are either hard to understand, lack important implementation dates, or lack references to source materials.
These shortcomings led to the development of our own ACA Timeline, which is an evolving piece of work. We are continuing to update it with additional key provisions and citations.
Pennsylvania Moves to Prevent Hospital Plan Termination
The ongoing feud between Highmark and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has prompted Pennsylvania legislators to amend Act 94, the statute that governs termination of hospitalization insurance plans. The proposed amendments are winding their way through the Harrisburg Capitol and may have significant implications for hospitals and hospitalization insurance plans beyond just the current Highmark and UPMC dispute.
