Washington Report
The Washington Report is a short, weekly email update of the most important federal legislative, regulatory, and judicial developments in the previous week related to Aon Hewitt's business, including Health Care Reform.
Welcome to Aon Hewitt's Affordable Care Act Microsite
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010, and the related Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA), which modifies certain provisions of PPACA, was signed into law on March 30, 2010.
These two laws together, commonly referred to as the "Affordable Care Act," make sweeping changes to existing laws governing employer-sponsored group health plans, individual health coverage, and governmental health programs.
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Care Act
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) is constitutional as a tax, thereby allowing the law to be fully implemented. On June 28, 2012, the last day of its current term, Chief Justice Roberts, who wrote the opinion, announced the five to four decision in NFIB v. Sebelius that held the following:
- The penalty for not complying with the individual mandate is a valid exercise of Congress's taxing power and is therefore constitutional. The issue of whether the provision is severable does not need to be decided because the mandate was upheld.
- The Medicaid expansion is also constitutional. However, states cannot be stripped of existing federal Medicaid funding for not complying with the expansion provisions.
- The Anti-Injunction Act does not apply to this case.
The link to full text of the Supreme Court opinion is available at: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf.
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