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As the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court’s role is to hear cases that have progressed through lower courts without a clear decision. Soon after the Affordable Care Act became law in March of 2010, several states sued the federal government because they said that part of the law called the ‘individual mandate’ went against the U.S. Constitution. The individual mandate says that starting in 2014, every American must have health insurance or pay a fine.
What is a mandate?
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The health care law mandates, or requires, that everyone have health coverage by 2014. |
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When Congress was debating, negotiating and re-writing the Affordable Care Act in 2010, it ultimately decided to include a requirement that every American have health coverage in the new law. Making everyone buy insurance means the risk pool - the group of people buying coverage - is more diverse and spreads out health care costs more evenly. For example, the amount it costs a health insurance company to care for a sick 80-year-old is balanced out by what a young, healthy 25-year-old is paying to have coverage that he or she doesn’t use very often.
However, many Americans feel that a federal law forcing them to buy something goes against the basic tenets of the Constitution and that the Supreme Court should strike down that portion of the law.
A little known law from 1867 could postpone case till 2014
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The Supreme Court will discuss four main points related to the Affordable Care Act. |
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In addition to debating the individual mandate, the Supreme Court will also discuss three other major topics related to the Affordable Care Act. First, it will decide whether the case can even be heard at this time because of a 1867 law known as the Anti-Injunction Act.
The Anti-Injunction Act is based on the idea that if everyone just challenged every new tax in court right after it was signed into law, the government would go broke. So the law states that people have to actually pay a tax before they can challenge it. This means the Supreme Court could rule that the health care case can’t be heard right now and that those challenging it will have to wait until the penalty for not having insurance goes into effect in 2014.
The court will also debate an issue called severability – whether the court can rule against just one part of a law and let the rest stand. And finally, justices will discuss whether a part of the law expanding state Medicaid programs, the government health insurance program for people living in poverty, is constitutional.
The trial of the century
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The court's decision, set to come out in June, could significantly affect who wins the White House in November. |
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In the days leading up to the debate, people camped out overnight to get tickets to watch the proceedings. The trial is especially significant because of the presidential election just eight months away. President Obama stands behind the Affordable Care Act as a step toward fixing the health care system, while the Republican candidates call it “Obamacare” and hope to use opposition to big government to win votes in November.
“I think we know that going into the election, regardless of how the court rules…this will be a huge issue in the election campaign,” Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief of the journal Health Affairs, told the NewsHour. “The Republican candidates universally want to repeal the Affordable Care Act. We have heard from President Obama he wants it to go forward. So it will be a major, major argument.”
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I think we've been witnessing violence for years, whether in reality through the media or through video games, and I don't think that's a first-hand effect.
