The Health Care Law and You‏ (USA.gov Update) & A Commentary

An updated gateway to information about the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) from the US government including

• Full Text of the Affordable Care Act
  
• Key Features of the Law

Read this section to learn more about your rights and protections, insurance choices, and insurance costs. Get information on important benefits and programs available to seniors and small businesses.

• Timeline: What’s Changing and When
  The health care law puts in place reforms that will roll out through 2014 and beyond. Use the timeline or a printable list of key features in chronological order to learn what’s changing and when.

• Implementation Resources
  Find out how the health care law is being carried out across the country. Find links to regulations, authorities, grants, letters, reports, and other information related to the Affordable Care Act.

 Related news items

• The Supreme Court on health reform: Everybody wins! (KevinMD.com)
• The Supreme Court Ruling on the Affordable Care Act—A Bullet Dodged (with a video) (Brookings Institute)

  “…The outcome can be stated simply. People must pay a tax if they fail to carry approved health insurance. States may extend Medicaid coverage as specified in the Affordable Care Act, but if they don’t, none of the funds for previously eligible Medicaid enrollees will be in jeopardy. All other provisions of the Affordable Care Act stand….

  …

  Behind this seemingly simple outcome stand sharp disagreements over constitutional interpretation.

  For starters, by a vote of 5 to 4, the Court rejected the federal government’s argument that it can use its power to regulate interstate commerce to require people to carry insurance. Congress can impose a tax on those who don’t carry such insurance, but the concept of ‘mandate’ really doesn’t arise. …

• U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal Health Law (National Conference on State Legislatures)

“The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision today in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) v. Florida. There were four issues before the Court regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): the applicability of the Anti-Injunction Act; the constitutionality of the individual mandate; the severability of the individual mandate provisions from other provisions of PPACA; and the constitutionality of the Medicaid expansion.”

(Includes a chart explaining the legal arguments for and against each of these issues along with the Court’s ruling)

• Obamacare Seems To Be Reducing Federal Govt Health Costs(MedicalNewsToday, 29 June 2012)
  It appears that federal costs for reimbursing private health insurers are beginning to drop, after Patient   Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, has begun to come into effect.
  The Medicare Rights Center released a report today that provides an analysis of Medicare benefits through the Medicare Advantage (MA) program in New York. Before the ACA went into place, its detractors said that insurers would exit the market and prices would rise for everyone. This doesn’t appear to be the case. ….
• The Health Care Bloghas several related posts including
  • SCOTUS Surprise by Robert Reich (28 June 2012)

 “The big surprise, for many, was the vote by the Chief Justice of the Court, John Roberts, to join with the Court’s                              four liberals…Roberts nonetheless upheld the law because, he reasoned, the penalty to be collected by the government for non-compliance with the law is the equivalent of a tax – and the federal government has the power to tax. By this bizarre logic, the federal government can pass all sorts of unconstitutional laws – requiring people to sell themselves into slavery, for example – as long as the penalty for failing to do so is considered to be a tax.Regardless of the fragility of Roberts’ logic, the Court’s majority has given a huge victory to the Obama administration and, arguably, the American people. The Affordable Care Act is still flawed – it doesn’t do nearly enough to control increases in healthcare costs that already constitute 18 percent of America’s Gross Domestic Product, and will soar even further as the baby boomers age – but it is a milestone. And like many other pieces of important legislation before it – Social Security, Medicare, Civil Rights and Voting Rights – it will be improved upon. Every Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has sought universal health care, to no avail.

• What the SCOTUS ruling means for HealthCare by By DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN (JUne 28, 2012)
  “…The ACA remains a damaging, anti-growth vehicle for taxation.  The so-called Medicare surtax increases marginal tax rates on the return to saving, investment, and innovation.  The medical device tax will hurt innovation and cost jobs.  A bill to repeal it is gathering dust in the Senate.  Also, the insurers fee – the “premium tax” – will roil insurance markets, disrupt patient-provider relationships, and the vast majority of the burden will fall on the middle class.The ACA remains an unwise expansion of entitlement programs at a dangerous fiscal moment in U.S. history.  The U.S. has suffered a downgrade, has a debt-to-GDP ratio over 100 percent – a level historically associated with 1 percentage point slower growth and a heightened probability of financial crisis – and faces a spending-driven explosion of debt over the next decade.  Also, the ACA does not reform Medicare, which has a cash-flow deficit of nearly $300 billion annually and is responsible for one-fourth of all federal debt since 2001.

  Finally, the ACA is a vast regulatory expansion.  …”