Supreme Court to Rule on Healthcare Reform Law

  • by Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has announced it will consider the Affordable Care Act (ACA) during its current session. Oral arguments for the landmark healthcare reform law are expected this spring.

The court announced it will hear the case that originated in Florida, in which 26 states are suing the federal government challenging the individual mandate provision of the law. The Obama administration petitioned the Supreme Court in September to take that case after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Florida Judge Roger Vinson's ruling that the individual mandate is unconstitutional.

In its announcement Monday morning, the Supreme Court justices laid out which questions they will consider.

The states that filed the suit object to the ACA on a number of fronts, but opposition to the individual mandate is the main thrust of their argument. Under the ACA, nearly everyone must have health insurance by 2014, or else pay a penalty.



Vinson ruled in January that it's unconstitutional to require people to purchase health insurance and that, because the individual mandate provision in the law cannot be removed from the rest of the ACA, "the entire Act must be declared void."

An appeals court later agreed with Vinson that the mandate doesn't pass constitutional muster, but disagreed that it couldn't be severed from the rest of the law.

The Supreme Court will consider whether the mandate is constitutional and whether it can be severed from the rest of the law.

In addition, the court asked both sides to argue whether the lawsuit is barred by the Anti-Injunction Act, which states that the government cannot be sued for collecting a tax before the tax is collected.

Following the Supreme Court's announcement, the Obama Administration said in a statement, "We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and are confident the Supreme Court will agree."

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters at a Monday afternoon press conference that it is important that the Supreme Court rule soon.

"If we're going to have a fully-functional system by 2014 ... it's important that we put to rest once and for all the notion of 'what if the law just disappears?'"

The federal government had hoped that many states would be preparing to launch their health insurance exchanges, which is a crucial part of the law. But instead, many have said they want to see what happens with the court cases before moving forward on implementation.

To date, two appeals courts (the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals) have upheld the ACA, while one appeals court (the 11th Circuit) has ruled against the law.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that people who would be affected by the mandate can't sue until after the mandate actually goes into effect in 2014.