Supreme Court adds 30 minutes to health reform debate
Hospital groups file brief supporting overhaul's Medicaid expansion
Topics: Health Care Reform, Market Trends, Strategy, Payer and Regulatory Policy
February 22, 2012
The Supreme Court has allotted an additional 30 minutes for debate on whether the Anti-Injunction Act should apply to the federal health reform law.
With Tuesday's decision, the court has scheduled a total of six hours—over three days—for oral arguments on the overhaul. According to Politico, the time is allotted as follows:
- 60 minutes on the Medicaid expansion;
- 90 minutes on the Anti-Injunction Act;
- 90 minutes on the severability issue; and
- 120 minutes on the individual mandate.
The schedule change may mean the justices are considering delaying their ruling until 2014, according to Talking Points Memo's Sahil Kapur. The Anti-Injunction Act says that courts are not allowed to halt a tax that has yet to be collected, Kapur writes—and the Affordable Care Act's mandate will not take effect for another two years.
Six hospital groups join to file friend-of-the court brief
In a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Friday, a coalition of six hospital and medical school interest groups urged the court to dismiss arguments against the federal health reform law's Medicaid eligibility expansion.
The plaintiffs in the multistate lawsuit before the court have argued that the scheduled expansion of Medicaid in 2014 is unconstitutionally "coercive." According to the coalition's brief, permitting states to block the Medicaid changes would constitute a kind of "heckler's veto" that would stymie Medicaid innovation and block Medicaid rate increases for hospitals that Congress deems necessary.
The 30-page brief was filed by the American Hospital Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Catholic Health Association, the Federation of American Hospitals, the National Association of Children's Hospitals, and the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (Haberkorn, Politico, 2/21; Carlson, Modern Healthcare, 2/17 [subscription required]; AHA News, 2/17; Kapur, Talking Points Memo, 2/21).
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