Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
How GOP's Long-Sought Victory In Health Law Ruling Could Become A Headache That Lingers Into 2020 Elections
The Washington Post: Why Republicans (Secretly) Want The ACA To Survive
A Texas judge’s decision to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional has spooked Republicans who are unsure whether they have realized the long-sought victory celebrated by President Trump or stumbled into a nightmare that will haunt them through the next election cycle. They had already killed or softened its most loathed sections: The reviled penalty for not having health insurance was zeroed out as part of last year’s tax overhaul. The Trump administration had expanded access to far less robust — and much cheaper — insurance than the law mandated. It even allowed states to impose work rules on those eligible for expanded Medicaid benefits. (Johnson, 12/19)
The Hill: Senate GOP Blocks Bid To Intervene In ObamaCare Case
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a vote on a resolution that would have allowed the Senate to intervene in a federal lawsuit against ObamaCare. Democrats asked for unanimous consent to authorize the Senate legal counsel to defend ObamaCare in court after a district judge in Texas declared the entire law unconstitutional last week. The case is almost certainly headed for an appeal. (Hellmann, 12/19)
CQ: GOP Blocks Senate Democrats' Bid To Join Texas Health Law Case
Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., sought unanimous consent on the Senate floor to advance the resolution. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., objected to the unanimous consent request. “Trying to unravel this entire thing is absolutely something that we’re going to fight,” Manchin said at a Wednesday press conference. Manchin's move was a response to a decision by Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas Friday night. The judge ruled that the health care law is invalid because last year, Congress eliminated a central part of it, the penalty for the so-called “individual mandate” requiring most Americans to get coverage.(McIntire, 12/19)
Kaiser Health News: 5 Ways Nixing The Affordable Care Act Could Upend The Entire Health System
If Friday night’s district court ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional were to be upheld, far more than the law’s most high-profile provisions would be at stake. In fact, canceling the law in full — as Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, ordered in his 55-page decision — could thrust the entire health care system into chaos. “To erase a law that is so interwoven into the health care system blows up every part of it,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a health law professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health. “In law they have names for these — they are called super statutes,” she said. “And [the ACA] is a super statute. It has changed everything about how we get health care.” (Rovner, 12/20)
Modern Healthcare: ACA Repeal Wouldn't Stop Transition To Value-Based Payment, Efforts To Lower Drug Spending
Even if the Affordable Care Act is ultimately deemed unconstitutional, stakeholders wouldn't allow the momentum surrounding value-based care models and biosimilars to stall, experts and provider groups said. A Texas federal judge ruled last week that the Affordable Care Act couldn't stand without the individual mandate, rendering the entire law unconstitutional. The decision is likely to weave its way up to the Supreme Court. If the decision is upheld, it has the potential to upend efforts to bolster value-based care models instituted under the ACA as well as the pathway for biosimilar drugs. (Kacik and Castellucci, 12/19)
Politico Pro: Obamacare Ruling Chills Medicaid Expansion Push
In the three states where voters approved expansion through the ballot, the program still looks on track, though obstacles may emerge when legislatures convene in 2019. But in most of the Medicaid expansion holdout states where Democrats won governorships, in part because of pledges to join the program, the lawsuit may be strengthening Republican lawmakers' resolve. (Goldberg, 12/19)
NPR: Texas Judge's Decision To Overturn Obamacare Fits With His Past Rulings
U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor has a history of siding with Republicans on ideologically motivated lawsuits. His ruling last week, in which he sided with the GOP on a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, was not a one-off. In fact, critics say, his history is ultimately why that case was before him in the first place. (Lopez, 12/19)
Meanwhile, in Maryland, a judge grapples with a case that seeks to reaffirm the health law and challenge the validity of the U.S. acting attorney general's role in the suit —
The Wall Street Journal: Maryland Asks Judge To Affirm Obamacare, Nix Whitaker’s Appointment
A federal judge on Wednesday grappled with the most significant challenge so far to President Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general in a case that also raises questions about the Affordable Care Act. U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander spent nearly three hours considering a lawsuit by the state of Maryland that presents a rare combination of hot-button legal issues. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, filed the suit in September against then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other Trump administration officials, seeking a declaration that the ACA, also known as Obamacare, was constitutional and must be enforced by the administration even if it opposed the law. (Kendall, 12/19)
Reuters: Judge Signals Skepticism In Trump Team's Bid To Block Obamacare Suit
Whitaker, a Trump political loyalist named after the Republican president ousted Jeff Sessions as attorney general last month, is facing a series of legal challenges to the legality of his appointment. The lawsuit by Democratic Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh asks Hollander to declare Obamacare constitutional and to find that Whitaker was unlawfully appointed. Trump's administration has worked to undermine Obamacare after Congress failed in a Republican effort to repeal the law. (12/19)
Bloomberg: DOJ Lawyer Won’t Say If Whitaker Involved In Obamacare Suit
Attorneys for Maryland say the state is being harmed by Whitaker’s role because his appointment was illegitimate, as it is by the uncertainty over the future of the Affordable Care Act. A federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, last week ruled that without the tax penalty, a rule requiring people to buy insurance was invalid. Since that can’t be separated from the rest of the law, the judge ruled the whole thing had to go. (Harris, 12/19)
