Supreme Court Will Save Most of ACA: Health Insurer Group Head

The head of a major group for health insurers is predicting that the U.S. Supreme Court will keep most of the Affordable Care Act in place after it considers the California v. Texas ACA constitutionality case.

Matt Eyles, president of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), gave his assessment of the situation today, in a statement about the Supreme Court's decision to review the case.

AHIP has been asking the Supreme Court to handle the case quickly, and Eyles welcomed the announcement that the court has "granted certiorari" in the case.

California v. Texas

The case pits officials who oppose the ACA, in Texas and in other states, against officials who support the ACA.

California is leading the effort to support the ACA.

The Texas coalition argues that the ACA requirement that many people have what the government classifies as solid individual major medical insurance is unconstitutional.

The Texas coalition contends that the ACA has no provision "saving" the rest of the law if one part is thrown out, and that, because the individual mandate provision is unconstitutional, all of the rest of the ACA should be thrown out.

A district court judge in Texas has sided with the Texas coalition.

A 3-judge panel with the 5 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has also sided with the Texas coalition, but it was going to ask the district court judge to take another look at the idea that nullifying the individual mandate would have to kill all of the rest of the ACA.

The ACA contains many rules that affect the commercial health insurance market, such as the individual mandate, the ban on medical underwriting, and the rules that created the ACA premium tax credit subsidy program.

The ACA contains provisions that expand Medicaid and provide funding for graduate medical education, funding for geriatric care training programs, and funding for virus outbreak preparedness programs.

The Texas case came to life as Texas v. United States of America. The Supreme Court has agreed to review an offshoot with the name California v. Texas.

Eyles' Statement

Eyles said in his statement that the Supreme Court's decision to review the California v. Texas case "will remove the continued legal uncertainty that undermines the stability of coverage for nearly 300 million Americans."

"We are confident that the Supreme Court will agree that the district court's original decision to invalidate the entire ACA was misguided and wrong, and that zeroing out the mandate was never intended to wreak havoc across the entire American health care system," Eyles said.

— Read Appeals Court Rejects Health Insurers' Plea for Billions in Subsidy Money, on ThinkAdvisor.

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