Obamacare’s Fate At Stake Tomorrow In The Supreme Court

The Wall Street Journal: Affordable Care Act Faces Latest Test In Supreme Court 
A week after President Trump’s electoral defeat, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on one of the principal goals of his 2016 campaign—eliminating the Affordable Care Act—in the midst of an intensifying pandemic. The president and Senate Republicans never found a path to repeal or replace the Obama-era health-care law. But by reducing to zero the penalty for failing to maintain health insurance, they effectively removed the piece they found most objectionable. (Bravin and Armour, 11/8)

The Washington Post: The Affordable Care Act Returns To The Supreme Court In The Shadow Of A Pandemic
When the Supreme Court hears a case Tuesday that could abolish the Affordable Care Act, the stakes will be higher than ever, coming amid a historic health and economic crisis that has deprived millions of Americans of insurance and cast a neon light on health care’s importance. A decision this term to strike down the entire ACA — unlike when justices upheld the law on different grounds in 2012 and 2015 — would upend the health-care system in ways that touch most people in the United States. (Goldstein, 11/7)

Poynter: Obamacare Will Be In Front Of The Supreme Court Tomorrow. What You Need To Know. 
The Supreme Court will make a decision on the future of Obamacare on Tuesday. The justices will begin hearing arguments and later decide the case, likely in the spring of 2021. With Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the White House, the outcome might be less consequential than it might have been with Donald Trump in the White House, given his long opposition to the Affordable Care Act.At the center of the case before the court — California v. Texas (known as Texas v. U.S. in the lower courts) — is whether if one section of the Affordable Care Act is deemed unconstitutional, can the rest of it stand? (Tompkins, 11/9)

Also —

USA Today: Ten Years After Passage, Affordable Care Act Seems Likely To Survive Latest Supreme Court Challenge
When the Supreme Court rescued the Affordable Care Act five years ago from the second concerted effort to have it struck down, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia mused, "We really should start calling this law 'SCOTUScare.'" The quip from the leader of the court's conservative wing, who died the following year, was in response to his colleagues' dual rulings in 2012 and 2015 upholding President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement, which came to be known as Obamacare. (Wolf, 11/8)

AP: Without Ginsburg, High Court Support For Health Law In Doubt
Until six weeks ago, defenders of the Affordable Care Act could take comfort in some simple math. Five Supreme Court justices who had twice preserved the Obama-era health care law remained on the bench and seemed unlikely votes to dismantle it. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in mid-September and her replacement by Amy Coney Barrett barely a month later have altered the equation as the court prepares to hear arguments Tuesday in the third major legal challenge in the law’s 10-year existence. (Sherman and Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/7)

KHN: What To Know As ACA Heads To Supreme Court — Again
The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments in a case that, for the third time in eight years, could result in the justices striking down the Affordable Care Act. The case, California v. Texas, is the result of a change to the health law made by Congress in 2017. As part of a major tax bill, Congress reduced to zero the penalty for not having health insurance. But it was that penalty — a tax — that the high court ruled made the law constitutional in a 2012 decision, argues a group of Republican state attorneys general. Without the tax, they say in their suit, the rest of the law must fall, too. (Rovner, 11/9)

And states are keeping close watch on the case —

The Baltimore Sun: If US Supreme Court Dumps Obamacare Health Coverage, Maryland Could Get Massive Headache
There will be some “very big numbers” at stake when the U.S. Supreme Court considers Tuesday the latest challenge to the federal Affordable Care Act, especially in Maryland, which lawmakers, experts and observers say has embraced the law more than most. Among Marylanders with health insurance, one in five plans would be wiped out or significantly changed if the law, also known as Obamacare, was not upheld. Millions more with work-related insurance likely would lose benefits and see rate increases. Overall, the state would lose about $4 billion in federal funding. (Cohn, 11/9)

Boston Globe: With Supreme Court To Hear ACA Case, 422,000 Massachusetts Residents Could Lose Coverage
The percentage of people without health insurance would soar and Massachusetts would lose billions in critical federal funding if the US Supreme Court rules to overturn the Affordable Care Act, a new report warns. The latest legal challenge to the decade-old law known as Obamacare goes before the court Tuesday. A new analysis from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation estimates that 422,000 Massachusetts residents would lose their coverage in the extreme scenario that the law is struck down. These people are insured through subsidized private plans on the Massachusetts Health Connector, or through MassHealth, the state Medicaid program that serves low-income individuals. (Dayal McCluskey, 11/9)