Supreme Court Gearing Up for Health Care Reform
Mar
23
Written by:
3/23/2012 1:27 PM
Beginning Monday March 26, the Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments in one of its biggest cases in decades – the Affordable Care Act, or health care reform. Monday’s 90 minutes of argument will center on whether the Anti-Injunction Act bars the Court from considering the individual mandate. Essentially, if the Court finds that the Act applies here, then the Court would not be able to consider the individual mandate until its effective date in 2014.
Next, on March 27, the Court will hear 2 hours of argument on the constitutionality of the controversial individual mandate provision. On Wednesday March 28 the Court will consider whether the rest of the law remains effective if the Court were to strike down the individual mandate as unconstitutional and whether the expansion of Medicaid amounts to unconstitutional coercion of the States.
Not only will the Court’s decision have huge political implications, but the health care marketplace has already begun changing in fundamental ways in response to the law – could we even go back to the world before health care reform?