By Dan Traficonte Recently, the Petrie-Flom Center sent me to the 6th Annual Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference in downtown Boston, where students, researchers and health professionals from around the world gathered to network and share ideas. The conference’s focus covered a broad range of pressing global health issues, including the Ebola crisis…
By Kelsey Berry One of my previous blogs discussed how potentially discriminatory practices in insurance design may continue to dissuade people with high-cost conditions from enrolling in insurance plans, even in a post-ACA world. Last week, colleagues Haiden A. Huskamp, Howard H. Goldman, Colleen L. Barry and I published new findings in Psychiatric Services on the same issue, except with…
By David Orentlicher [cross-posted at HealthLawProfs blog] With the future of the Affordable Care Act in doubt after last week’s hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court, Republican lawmakers are busily preparing back-up legislation. New options should not be necessary—the government should prevail against those challenging its interpretation of the Act’s premium subsidy provisions. But it is…
By Abby Moncrieff In Wednesday’s oral arguments, Justice Kennedy seemed highly tempted by a constitutional avoidance argument in King v. Burwell. Although Kennedy’s questions provide some optimism for the government, they have also caused some confusion and consternation. The confusion arises because three different amicus briefs presented constitutionally-motivated arguments (including one that I wrote), and…
Academic Fellow Rachel Sachs was quoted today in the SCOTUSblog: Wednesday’s oral arguments in King v. Burwell, the challenge to the availability of tax subsidies for individuals who purchase their health insurance on a marketplace created by the federal government, continue to dominate coverage of and commentary on the Court. In The Wall Street Journal, Louise Radnofsky…
By Rachel Sachs Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in King v. Burwell, and the Justices seemed split on the central issue of whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) permits health insurance subsidies to flow to citizens of states that have chosen not to establish their own insurance exchanges. Trying to predict the outcome…
By Matthew Lawrence UPDATE: I posted what follows in January, reflecting on the JALSA amicus brief led by Prof. Abigail Moncrieff from BU that argues that petitioners’ interpretation in King v. Burwell would make the ACA unconstitutional by forcing states to choose between establishing exchanges and torpedoing their individual health insurance markets. In other words,…
By Tony Caldwell and Christopher Robertson This new post by Tony Caldwell and Christopher Robertson appears on the Health Affairs Blog, as part of a series stemming from the Third Annual Health Law Year in P/Review event held at Harvard Law School on Friday, January 30, 2015. The Physician Payments Sunshine Act, a provision in the Affordable Care Act, seeks to increase…
By Abbe Gluck Next week the Court hears a major challenge to Obamacare, King v. Burwell. Readers of this blog know the case has deep importance for health care. But it also is a big case for law. I have previously detailed why the case is the big test for the Court’s current text-oriented statutory-interpretation…
By Lauren Taylor A new New England Journal of Medicine commentary by Peter A. Ubel, M.D., David A. Comerford, Ph.D., and Eric Johnson, Ph.D. highlights significant flaws in the way information is presented to insurance shoppers on state and federal exchange websites. The authors present original survey data to support the argument that subtle aspects of…
