Debate LoungeRSS Feed
Tag: Obamacare
Pre-Existing Conditions Coverage
Ten Senate Republicans have introduced a bill designed to guarantee protections for patients with pre-existing conditions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The move is in response to a lawsuit brought by 20 States that are seeking to invalidate the law since Congress effectively ended the “individual mandate” that requires most Americans to have health insurance coverage or pay a fine. The U.S. Department of Justice has declined to defend the ACA in court and has called provisions of that prohibit discrimination based on pre-existing conditions unconstitutional. Oral arguments in Texas v. United States began in early September. The Republican…
Birth Control Rule
On October 6, the Trump Administration released new rules that would allow employers to seek an exemption, for religious or moral reasons, to the Obamacare provision requiring insurance plans to cover contraception. According to a study commissioned by the Obama Administration, 55 million women now have access to free birth control because of the contraceptive coverage mandate. That provision has been the subject of more than five years of litigation, however. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that nonreligious anti-abortion groups must comply with the mandate. The court sided with the Federal Government in…
Supreme Court Upholds the Affordable Care Act
In a 5-4 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is constitutional. The Court upheld the most controversial portion of the law — the requirement that as of 2014 all Americans must have health insurance or pay a penalty — as a valid exercise of Congress’s tax powers. The penalty, the majority held, is in fact a tax on those who do not have health insurance, as it is enforced through the tax code and assessed on Federal tax returns. In rendering this judgment, the Court…
Health Care Reform on Trial – Day 3
The Supreme Court wrapped up its third and final day of oral arguments on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act today, as it considered two distinct questions. The first case dealt with how much of the reform law should survive if the Court strikes down the mandate that most Americans must buy health insurance or pay a penalty. Lawyers for the opponents of the law argued that the entire Act must be thrown out. The Obama Administration position is that the prohibition against insurers discriminating against those with pre-existing conditions, as well as insurance rate controls, would be invalidated….
Supreme Court Finishes Day 2 of Health Care Challenges
The U.S. Supreme Court has wrapped up two hours of oral arguments on the constitutionality of a key provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the mandate that most Americans must purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. Early analysis is that it was a hard day for Obama Administration Solicitor General Donald Verrilli and proponents of the health care reform law, as conservative justices expressed skepticism about legal justification for the law. Predicting the outcome of cases based on oral arguments, however, is usually a risky game. Today is just the beginning of a long internal debate…
Health Care Reform Before the Court – Day 1
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard the first round of oral arguments for cases challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health care reform legislation. In a way, it was an appetizer before the judicial main course that will be served up the following two days, as the nine justices spent 89 minutes considering whether they should even be considering this case right now at all. At the center of Monday’s discussion was a 19th century law called the Anti-Injunction Act, which prohibits challenges to tax laws until they take effect. The question…
Obama Administration Calls for Court Review of Health Care Law
On Wednesday, the Obama Administration announced that it would appeal an Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel’s decision to strike down part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Administration could have opted to request that the full circuit court rehear the case en banc, but the Administration declined to do so. This means the High Court will almost certainly consider the case in the upcoming 2011-12 term and could grant certiorari as early as next week, when the new session begins on Monday. “Today, the Obama Administration will ask the…
Health Care Reform Challenge Reaches Fourth Circuit
Earlier this week, the legal challenge to last year’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act moved one step closer to the Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments for two lawsuits against the landmark health care reform bill — one brought by the State of Virginia and the other by Liberty University, a small religious-affiliated school located in Lynchburg, Virginia.