HHS: Seniors Saved $5B On Prescription Costs Thanks To Health Law; Obama Challenges Roberts On ACA Ruling
In the meantime, President Obama splits with the Supreme Court on their reasoning behind upholding the health law.
The Hill: Health Law Has Saved Seniors $4.8 Billion On Rx Drugs, HHS Says
HHS regularly touts the savings seniors have seen from new discounts on prescription drugs, ... The Affordable Care Act gradually closes the Medicare "doughnut hole" -- a coverage gap in which seniors have to pay for their drugs entirely out of pocket. Drug makers also agreed to offer deep discounts to Medicare recipients. So far, seniors have saved $4.8 billion on their prescriptions, HHS said. The department said 5.6 million seniors have received a drug discount or rebate, including 2.3 million this year. Seniors who hit the doughnut hole have saved an average of $657 this year (Baker, 10/25).
The Hill: Obama Disagrees With Supreme Court's Health Care Reasoning
President Obama says he wasn't surprised the Supreme Court upheld his health care law -- but he thinks the court used the wrong legal reasoning. In an interview published Thursday by Rolling Stone, Obama said the health care law should have been upheld under the Constitution's Commerce Clause. The Supreme Court rejected that argument while allowing the law to stand. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court's liberal justices to uphold the health care law under Congress's taxing power (Baker, 10/25).
USA Today: Obama Hits Supreme Court -- On Health Care
In discussing the health care ruling, Obama told Rolling Stone: "It's hard to dispute that health care is a national issue of massive importance. It takes up 17 or 18 percent of our entire economy; it touches on everybody's lives; it is a massive burden on businesses, on our federal budget and on families. It's practiced across state lines. So the notion that Congress could not take a comprehensive approach to that problem the way we have makes no sense." (Jackson, 10/26).
