The AHA — joined by the Federation of American Hospitals, Catholic Health Association of the United States, Association of American Medical Colleges, and America’s Essential Hospitals — today filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to review this term an appeals court decision that held the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate unconstitutional. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have petitioned the Supreme Court to review the decision this term. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last month ruled the ACA’s individual mandate unconstitutional and sent the case back to the district court in Texas for the judge to take a “careful, granular approach” to determining which of the law's provisions could survive without the mandate. 

The 5th Circuit’s decision remanding to the district court for further, “likely protracted,” proceedings has cast American health care into uncertainty, the brief states. “As litigation continues, hospitals, providers, and patients will have no definitive answer to whether the entire ACA will remain on the books when this case ends. That uncertainty will have serious, perhaps irreparable, consequences for hospitals and the patients they serve. In particular, it would destabilize hospitals’ ability to make long-term investments. Hospitals must decide which initiatives to fund years in advance. Before making those investments, hospitals need to know what the legal landscape will look like.” 

According to the brief, the 5th Circuit’s decision to remand “was all the more unnecessary because answering this severability question should have been easy. Law, logic, and experience all counsel in favor of severing the individual mandate.” The brief urges the Supreme Court to “step in now to provide certainty for patients as well as hospitals and other entities whose critical operating decisions are inextricably tied to the ACA.” 

For more on the appeals court decision, see the AHA’s recent statement

Related News Articles

Headline
Approximately 988,000 consumers who currently do not have health insurance coverage through the individual marketplace have signed up for a 2025 health plan…
Headline
More than 496,900 consumers who currently do not have health insurance coverage have signed up for a 2025 health plan through the federally facilitated Health…
Headline
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit June 21 partially affirmed the district court judgment that the Preventative Services Task Force charged with…
Headline
Over 21.4 million Americans selected or were automatically re-enrolled in 2024 Marketplace coverage, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported…
Headline
A new report by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Consumer Representatives calls for regulatory oversight to ensure insurers comply…
Headline
Effective July 1, over 52,000 low-income adults in South Dakota will become eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare…