On Nov. 14, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will review the health care reform law (PPACA) during its 2012 term. This development is significant to the fate of the health care reform law because the Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether or not the law is constitutional. It is expected that the Supreme Court will issue its decision by June 2012, which would be just over four months from the 2012 presidential election.

The Supreme Court will likely hear arguments on the health care reform law in March 2012. The justices have decided to hear 5½ hours of oral argument on the law’s constitutionality and related issues, which will likely be spread over two or more days. This is an extraordinary amount of time for oral argument – most modern court cases only receive one hour of oral argument – and is indicative of the importance of the health care reform law challenges.

The Court has agreed to review four questions that were raised in various lower court challenges to PPACA:

·         Individual Mandate:  Did Congress exceed its authority under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution in requiring that individuals maintain “minimum essential coverage” beginning in 2014, or pay a tax assessment?

·         Severability: If the individual mandate provision is nullified as unconstitutional, is it “severable” from the rest of the legislation, or will some or all of the other PPACA provisions also be nullified?

·         Anti-injunction Act: Are private individuals and states procedurally barred from challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate by the Anti-Injunction Act, which prohibits legal challenges to taxes until after the tax is collected?

·         Medicaid: Did Congress exceed its constitutional authority in expanding the Medicaid program?

It is difficult to predict how the Supreme Court will rule on PPACA. However, it is likely that the Court will rule in one of the following ways:

·         The Supreme Court may rule that Congress acted within its constitutional authority when enacting the individual mandate.

·         The Supreme Court may rule that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority when enacting the individual mandate. In this case, the Supreme Court will likely address whether other portions of the law can be severed from the individual mandate or whether the entire law is invalid. 

·         Although it seems unlikely, the Supreme Court may rule that, since the individual mandate does not go into effect until 2014, it is not yet ready for judicial review. 

Unison will continue to update you as new information becomes available pertaining to health care reform. Please contact your Unison Employee Benefits Consultant should you have any immediate questions regarding how the law’s provisions impact your company.