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Why is the Affordable Care Act (ACA) up before the supreme court again? Well, its the latest chapter of Republicans trying to get Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare reforms struck down.
My layman’s understanding of the case is this: In the Affordable Care Act, there is a provision requiring minimum essential coverage provision, known as the ‘individual mandate’.
The ACA remains in effect while the litigation is pending. However, if all or most of the law ultimately is struck down, it will have complex and far-reaching consequences for the nation’s health care system, affecting nearly everyone in some way. A host of ACA provisions could be eliminated, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions, subsidies to make individual health insurance more affordable, expanded eligibility for Medicaid, coverage of young adults up to age 26 under their parents’ insurance policies, coverage of preventive care with no patient cost-sharing, closing of the doughnut hole under Medicare’s drug benefit, and a series of tax increases to fund these initiatives.
Hi, and welcome to our live coverage of American politics in the wake of last week’s election. There’s an important hearing at the supreme court today about Obamacare. It could see the law struck down as unconstitutional and deprive millions of healthcare amid a pandemic. Here’s a little of where we are and what we might expect …
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