With approximately two months having passed since the end of the government shutdown, the fundamental question still remains; what exactly did Congress achieve through the contentious shutdown negotiations? The shutdown was spurred in part by certain Congressional Members’ opposition to the funding and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). A centerpiece of these oppositional … Continue Reading
Last Wednesday, September 18, 2013, Walgreen Company (“Walgreen”) announced its plan to move approximately 160,000 employees to Aon Hewitt’s private health exchange (the “Aon Exchange”) in 2014. This move marks a significant decrease in risk for Walgreen as the company will shift to a defined contribution model for funding its employees’ health insurance. Under the … Continue Reading
After a quiet fall, one of the lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of PPACA has new life. In a brief order, the U.S. Supreme Court has sent the Liberty University v. Geitner case to be heard again by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals out of Richmond, Virginia. As the AP mentioned in its piece run by the Washington … Continue Reading
The decision we’ve all been waiting for is in — the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the statute commonly known as the individual insurance mandate (everyone must have minimum health insurance coverage or pay a penalty) is constitutional under Congress’ taxing power. Because the individual mandate was upheld, the rest of the Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) has also survived. The … Continue Reading
As we get closer to receiving a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of PPACA and its individual insurance mandate, three major insurers have committed to continue some benefits that were required by PPACA. These announcements address some of the uncertainty being experienced by insureds who don’t know what will happen or how quickly changes … Continue Reading
Next week, the drama begins — the Supreme Court will hold what promises to be the biggest (an impressive 6 hours) and most important series of oral arguments of the decade, if not the century — to decide the future of Obama’s health care reform, PPACA. The government will be primarily represented by Solicitor General Don Verilli; arguing most … Continue Reading
The recent decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in the Liberty University case may change the path the PPACA cases take in the United States Supreme Court and could even mean that a definitive decision on the individual insurance mandate wouldn’t come until 2016 or later. Until now, most commentators have assumed that we … Continue Reading
Today, the Eleventh Circuit issued a whopping 300-page opinion holding PPACA’s individual insurance mandate unconstitutional, in Florida v. HHS, siding with the numerous States that filed or have since joined the case. This is directly contrary to the Sixth Circuit’s June 26 decision in the Thomas Moore case, holding that the statute was constitutional. Notably, both courts delivered divided 2-1 opinions. … Continue Reading
It's way too soon to know what will eventually come of PPACA, but it stands to reason that no law of this magnitude has ever been implemented without some revision. Reform is never a singular act, but rather a process that must be organic if it is to attain its desired objectives.
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