Health Affairs

Last week the Supreme Court heard three days of oral arguments on the challenge by 26 states and several private plaintiffs to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Specifically, the plaintiffs argued that the ACA’s minimum coverage requirement – sometimes known as the “individual mandate” – was authorized neither by Congress’s Constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce, nor by its power to levy taxes. The state plaintiffs also argued that they were being unconstitutionally coerced to participate in the ACA’s Medicaid expansion.

On Health Affairs Blog, you can read posts by several noted legal experts analyzing these historic arguments. Authors include Mary Ann Chirba, Timothy Jost, Renee Landers, Wendy Mariner, Alice Noble, Marc Rodwin, Sara Rosenbaum, and William Sage (bios available with posts).

Day One: Does the Tax Anti-Injunction Act Deprive the Court of jurisdiction to consider a challenge to the minimum coverage requirement until someone is actually penalized for violating the provision?
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• The Supreme Court Health Reform Arguments: William Sage On The Lessons Of Day One
• Wendy Mariner On The Supreme Court Health Reform Arguments: The Anti-Injunction Act
• Sara Rosenbaum On Day One Of The SCOTUS Health Reform Arguments: What Was That Medicaid Discussion?
• The Supreme Court ACA Arguments: Timothy Jost On The Anti-Injunction Act

Day Two: Does the minimum coverage requirement exceed Congress’s Constitutional powers?
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• Renee Landers On The Individual Mandate: Towards A Single-Payer System Or Public Option?
• Marc Rodwin On The Individual Mandate: Congress Can Constitutionally Build On Private Insurance
• William Sage On The Supreme Court ACA Arguments Day Two: Where No Law Has Gone Before?
• Alice Noble And Mary Ann Chirba On The Individual Mandate Argument: Beyond Uncompensated Care
• Sara Rosenbaum On SCOTUS Day Two: Rashomon On The Potomac
• The Minimum Coverage Requirement Oral Argument: A Comprehensive Discussion By Timothy Jost
• Wendy Mariner On The Supreme Court’s Individual Mandate Oral Argument: The Search For A Limiting Principle 

Day Three (morning): If the ACA’s minimum coverage requirement is struck down, what other parts of the law, if any, must also be voided?
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• Wendy Mariner On Severability: Laser Surgery, Friends & Family, Or Blow It Up?
• Alice Noble And Mary Ann Chirba On Severability: Life Is A Highway
• Timothy Jost: The Arguments Over Severability Of The Minimum Coverage Requirement
• William Sage On The Last Day Of Supreme Court Arguments: Enough Frivolity For A While

Day Three (afternoon): Are states unconstitutionally coerced into participating into the ACA’s Medicaid expansion by the prospect of losing all Medicaid funding if they do not participate?
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• Timothy Jost On The Medicaid Coercion Debate: The Most Important Question Before The Court
• William Sage On The Last Day Of Supreme Court Arguments: Enough Frivolity For A While
• Sara Rosenbaum: Trying To Make Sense Of The States’ Medicaid Coercion Arguments

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2012 at 2:25 pm and is filed under All Categories, Health Care Costs, Health Law, Health Reform, Insurance, Medicaid, Spending, States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.