Dismantling the Affordable Care Act: The Obama Supreme Court Argument + 51 Republican Senators

Robert Laszewski

Posted 2/9/12 on Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review

I have no idea which way the Supreme Court will rule this year on the Affordable Care Act. Let me go out on a limb and predict a 5-4 vote on the question of whether the individual mandate is Constitutional. Just don’t ask me which way the vote goes.

I found the recent Obama administration brief submitted to the Court on the mandate question somewhat ironic. Not surprisingly, the Obama Justice Department argued that a finding by the Court that the individual mandate is unconstitutional should not jeopardize the vast majority of the new health law.

Continue reading “Dismantling the Affordable Care Act: The Obama Supreme Court Argument + 51 Republican Senators”

Implementing Health Care Reform: Coops, MEWAs and Medicare Data

Timothy Jost

Posted 12/12/11 on The Health Affairs Blog

Copyright ©2011 Health Affairs by Project HOPE – The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc. 

The week of December 5 was a particularly busy week in health care reform implementation.  After a lull over the Thanksgiving holiday, new regulations, proposed regulations, guidance, and grant announcements have poured out of the agencies.  This post will briefly summarize three of these issuances: the final rule on the Establishment of Consumer Operated and Oriented (CO-OP) program; the final rule on the Availability of Medicare Data for Performance Measurement to qualified entities; and a series of proposed rules and forms issued by the Department of Labor to implement new provisions of the ACA intended to address Multiple Employer Welfare Association (MEWA) fraud and abusive practices.

Continue reading “Implementing Health Care Reform: Coops, MEWAs and Medicare Data”