Posted March 26, 2012

Everything you need to know as the Supreme Court's review of the Affordable Care Act gets underway

By Meredith Hughes

Today the Supreme Court began the first of three full days of oral arguments debating the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The issue before the Court today is whether the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) is applicable in this case. The AIA states that no one can bring legal action to prevent the collection of a tax, however, this means that you can sue after the tax is collected. If the AIA applies to the PPACA litigation, then the Court would have to punt their decision about the individual mandate down the road to at least after 2014, when the mandate tax penalty is applicable.

A complete transcript of today’s arguments is available here.

We’ll keep posting on this issue, but in the meantime, here are a few articles and blogs we’re reading:

• Check out The Wall Street Journal’s live blog for quick updates on what is being said, as it is being said.
• POLITICO predicts the future for us with “6 ways the Supreme Court might rule.” If you listen to the POLITICO Pro breakfast briefing on this topic from last week, you’ll hear several experts predict that the court will uphold the law.
• The Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff explains why the business of health care will never be the same. Transformation of our broken health care system, moving toward paying for care value instead of volume, was already underway before PPACA and will continue regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision. She also provides an FAQ on the Supreme Court and health reform here.
• Former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger debunks five myths about the health care law in The Washington Post’s Outlook section.
• Kaiser Health News has a primer on oral arguments that gives a quick rundown on what to watch out for.

More to come!

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