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Tuesday 5 June 2012
Consequences of striking down Affordable Care Act

If the Supreme Court strikes down some or all of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) this month, the negative consequences will be several and serious.

The ACA guarantees access to affordable health insurance to roughly 40 million Americans who otherwise could not afford it — people who do not obtain insurance through their employer, Medicare, or Medicaid. If the court invalidates the ACA, someone who loses a job (and thus her insurance) and becomes ill is in financial peril. She likely will be denied new coverage based on her preexisting condition.

It would be one thing if our Constitution prohibited Congress from addressing this awful situation with the ACA. But this is exactly the kind of problem that our Constitution empowers Congress to solve.

Since the 1930s, the Supreme Court has recognized that the Constitution gives Congress robust authority to address interstate economic problems. Because our country has open interstate borders and mobile participants in health care and insurance markets, states acting alone are not well situated to require that insurers cover people with preexisting conditions. Insurers can move to states that don’t impose such a requirement. Moreover, individuals may have to turn down better jobs in other states because they can’t afford to lose their health insurance.

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    HITW: I do hope the Supreme Court does not strike down the ACA, for these tenets alone. Americans are right to continue...
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    the convellere 2012 adds - if Obamacare fails at the Supreme court, the lawyers are to blame, for there is zero way,...
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