[Link: Goldstein: What Conservatives Won in the Health Care Case - Bloomberg Law]
On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is constitutional, upholding essentially all provisions of the health care reform law.
Our first analysis of the historic ruling came from law firm Constangy, Brooks & Smith LLP:
“In one of the most anticipated decisions in decades, this morning the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is constitutional. The Court upheld virtually every part of it. The most controversial and discussed aspect of the law, the ‘individual mandate’ to purchase health insurance or pay an annual penalty, survived even though many observers believed that the court would strike it down. The Court’s rationale: the penalty is itself a tax and therefore within the power of Congress to impose.
The Supreme Court views the individual mandate to purchase insurance as a tax, which it upheld as constitutional.
Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, and the vote was a narrow 5-4 in favor of the Act. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the dissenting opinion in which he states that four of the nine justices would have struck down the law in its entirety…
The effect of the Court’s decision: all existing provisions of the Act, such as the coverage of adult children up to age 26 and the prohibitions on lifetime benefit limits, remain in effect. More importantly, the penalties on larger employers for failing to provide minimum essential coverage and availability of coverage through government-sponsored exchanges will become effective as scheduled, on January 1, 2014.”
One aspect of the law will have to be rewritten, however. Law firm Franczek Radelet:
“… the Court did find one part of the law’s Medicaid expansion rules to be unconstitutional. Under the law as written, the federal government has the power to withhold state Medicaid funds if a state does not comply with the new Medicaid expansion rules. The Court held, however, that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to withhold existing Medicaid funding for a state’s failure to comply with the new expansion rules.”
—-
Read the updates:
• Supreme Court: “Constitutional!” Health Care Reform Law Survives - Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLP
• Supreme Court Upholds Federal Health Care Reform Law - Franczek Radelet P.C.
• [Audio] Goldstein: What Conservatives Won in the Health Care Case - Bloomberg Law
• Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Reform Law - Ford & Harrison LLP
• U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Act - Loeb & Loeb LLP
• Supreme Court Upholds Individual Mandate in the Affordable Care Act, but Medicaid Expansion is in Question - Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
• Supreme Court Rules on Affordable Care Act - Ober|Kaler
• Biosimilar Developers Can Breathe a Sigh of Relief - Dechert LLP
• Obamacare Ruled Constitutional: What It Means for You
—-
Read the Supreme Court decision:
• National Federation of Independent Business et al. v. Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al.
—-
Check back during the day, we’ll be adding additional legal commentary and analysis as it comes in. We’re expecting video shortly.
—-
Also follow the news on Twitter via @JDSupra and @HealthLaw
