EVERYTHING STANDS
This morning, the United States Supreme Court announced its decisions on the four interrelated issues that made up the constitutional challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The court has decided the individual mandate is a tax and thereby constitutional, and that the Medicaid expansion is also legal, although its provisions were limited. The entire measure stands as is except that the federal government’s power to terminate states’ Medicaid funds has been reduced. For purposes of implementation, virtually all of the law and all resulting regulations and deadlines proceed as scheduled. The only part of the law that will change has to do with the level of funds states may receive based on choices they make relative to their Medicaid programs.
With regard to the constitutionality of the individual mandate, the Justices voted 5 to 4 that Congress was within its authority to require that all Americans have health insurance coverage using its power of taxation. Justices Roberts, Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan voted to uphold the mandate. Justices Kennedy, Scalia, Alito and Thomas opposed the decision. The court also ruled that PPACA may allow states to expand their Medicaid programs. However, in the majority opinion, the Justices made it clear that if states do not want to participate in the PPACA expansion of Medicaid, they can continue to receive their existing level of funding for the rest of the program.
Reported June 28, 1012 by NAHU