2012 September Health Care News

The September issue of Health Care News reports legal challenges to the federal health care law, aka Obamacare, have only just begun. While the U.S. Supreme Court found the individual mandate constitutionally permissible and the forced Medicaid expansion impermissible, other lawsuits are pending. The law's Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), contraception mandate, provision against physician-owned hospitals, and mandatory health insurance exchanges are all under legal fire.

Also in this issue:

• States are taking widely divergent approaches to the implementation of President Barack Obama’s law in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

• The Medicaid expansion proposed under Obamacare will be expensive for Texas and other states, which is why several plan to opt out of that provision.

• Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder breaks with his fellow Republicans to pursue implementation of a health insurance exchange, running into pushback from conservative legislators.

• Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich rejects calls to expand Medicaid and create a health insurance exchange, preferring to wait until after the November elections.

• Colorado Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper wants to expand Medicaid, but he will need to find funding during a time of budget crunch.

• Vermont’s plans for the single-payer Green Mountain Care system require the state to roll back its health insurance exchange within a few years of implementing it.

• Very few individual policies, particularly the high-deductible plans that have surged in popularity in recent years, will survive under Obama’s law.