CMA Health Policy Blog

Cut Through the Rhetoric: Questions to Ask After the Supreme Court ACA Decision

June 15, 2012 at 2:59 pm meshepard Leave a comment

Originally Published at Nieman Watchdog, in ASK THIS, June 14, 2012 (available at http://niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00569), we offer reporters and editors a checklist for stories when the Supreme Court rules on the Affordable Care Act (ACA):

• What will happen to the Medicare Part D Donut Hole coverage, preventive benefit coverage improvements, Part D income-based premiums?
• Will young adults receiving coverage up to age 26 on their parents’ plans immediately lose their coverage? Will they be able to get coverage elsewhere?
• Will children with pre-existing conditions lose their coverage? If so, how will they get coverage in the future?
• What will happen in states that have started to implement the law, for example by setting up “exchanges”? Will some states try to proceed without ACA?
• What will happen to those who would have been covered by the Medicaid enhancements under the law?

• If so, what was struck down?
• What is left?

• Can the law still work without this requirement?
• Can the law be amended to make it work, without a minimum coverage mandate?

• What demographic groups will be most harmed?
• What will be the effect on costs to the federal government, states, and individuals?

Unless the entire law is upheld, people in need of health care will lose. Be ready to recognize what will be lost – and by whom.

Entry filed under: Access to Health Care, Health Care Reform, Health Care Reform Repeal, Health Insurance, Help for Low Income People, Medicare, Medicare Reform, Reform. Tags: Affordable Care Act, Corporate Greed, Deficit; Medicare, Fact and Fiction, Health Reform & Next Steps, Medicare, Supreme Court.