Law Commons^™

Loopholes In The Affordable Care Act: Regulatory Gaps And Border Crossing Techniques And How To Address Them, Timothy Stoltzfus Jost

Timothy S. Jost

Not available.

Is Medicaid Constitutional?, Timothy Stoltzfus Jost

Timothy S. Jost

Not available.

The Supreme Court And The Future Of Medicaid, Timothy Stoltzfus Jost

Timothy S. Jost

Not available.

Corporations, Taxes, And Religion: The Hobby Lobby And Conestoga Contraceptive Cases, Steven J. Willis

UF Law Faculty Publications

Beginning in 2013, the federal government mandated that general business corporations include contraceptive and early abortion coverage in large employee health plans. Internal Revenue Code Section 4980D imposes a substantial excise tax on health plans violating the mandate. Indeed, for one company – Hobby Lobby – the expected annual tax is nearly one-half billion dollars. Dozens of “for profit” businesses have challenged the mandate on free exercise grounds, asserting claims under the First Amendment as well as under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

So far, courts have been reluctant to hold corporations have religious rights of their own; as a …

Distinguishing The Corporal From The Divine: Legal Fictions Create Bodies Not Souls, Daisy Ayllon

Seventh Circuit Review

Can a for-profit, secular corporation exercise religion? If so, does the Affordable Care Act's requirement that employer-provided health insurance plans offer women of reproductive age contraceptives violate free exercise rights?

Plaintiffs challenging the "contraceptive mandate," as it is commonly known, argue that it violates their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) because it imposes a substantial burden on their religious exercise without meeting strict scrutiny. Although these challenges do present courts with a novel issue (whether a secular, for-profit corporation is a "person" capable of "exercising religion"), the answer to the broader question should be clear: requiring corporate-provided …

The Obamacare Opportunity: Implementing The Affordable Care Act To Improve Health, Reduce Hardship, And Grow The Economy For All Californians, Jeffrey Selbin, Ann O'Leary, Theresa Cheng, Stephanie Campos, Katherine Adamides, Rey Fuentes

Jeffrey Selbin

Finding A Positive Right To Healthcare, Nicole Huberfeld

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this blog post, Professor Nicole Huberfeld provides a review of Edward Rubin's article The Affordable Care Act, The Constitutional Meaning of Statutes, and the Emerging Doctrine of Positive Constitutional Rights, 53 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1639 (2012).

Can Consumers Make Affordable Care Affordable? The Value Of Choice Architecture, Eric J. Johnson, Ran Hassin, Tom Baker, Allison T. Bajger, Galen Treuer

All Faculty Scholarship

Starting this October, tens of millions will be choosing health coverage on a state or federal health insurance exchange as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We examine how well people make these choices, how well they think they do, and what can be done to improve these choices. We conducted 6 experiments asking people to choose the most cost-effective policy using websites modeled on current exchanges. Our results suggest there is significant room for improvement. Without interventions, respondents perform at near chance levels and show a significant bias, overweighting out-of-pocket expenses and deductibles. Financial incentives do …

A Corporation Has No Soul - The Business Entity Law Response To Challenges To The Contraceptive Mandate Under The Ppaca, Thomas E. Rutledge

Thomas E. Rutledge

The most contentious matter in the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “PPACA”) is not a question of health care, but rather one of the law of business organizations. The dispute has been over the requirement that group health insurance plans provide, on a no-cost sharing basis, coverage for a variety of procedures and prescription medicines involving contraception and what are described as “abortificants.”

The class of suits subject to this discussion were filed by what are not religious organizations but rather for-profit business ventures, asserting that they should be exempt from the requirements of the …

The Affordable Care Act And International Recruitment And Migration Of Nursing Professionals, Helen D. Arnold

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Through its various provisions, the Affordable Care Act will insure more than thirty million Americans by January 1, 2014. This dramatic increase in coverage will have significant effects on both the U.S. economy and its healthcare system. Nursing professionals make up a large portion of the U.S. healthcare system and with a dramatic nursing shortage already in place, employers increasingly look abroad to fill nursing vacancies. Due to the increasing effects of globalization, foreign nurses have become an integral part of the U.S. healthcare system. This note argues that the increased coverage created by the Affordable Care Act will increase …

If A Right To Health Care Is Argued In The Supreme Court, Does Anybody Hear It?, W. David Koeninger

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Rights Of Belonging For Women, Rebecca E. Zietlow

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Community Health Centers As A Model For Health Care Reform, Timothy Li

Timothy Li

This Note evaluates Community Health Centers (“CHCs”) as a model for health care reform by considering access, cost, and effectiveness of health care delivered through CHCs, as well as their system of corporate governance. This Note proposes that every medically underserved community adopt a CHC-based model to function as a health care safety net. Not only should the federal government increase support for CHCs, but CHCs should also continue to raise funds from government sources, private foundations, and community supporters. Even though alternative proposals for health care reform may exist, those proposals do not provide an adequate remedy to increase …

The Likely Impact Of National Federation On Commerce Clause Jurisprudence, Robert J. Pushaw Jr., Grant S. Nelson

Pepperdine Law Review

In National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court exhaustively analyzed Congress’s constitutional power to enact the watershed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”). The ACA imposes a “shared responsibility requirement,” popularly known as the “Individual Mandate” (IM), which forces Americans to buy medical insurance or pay a “penalty.” The ACA’s text and legislative history, as well as the public defenses of it by President Obama and his supporters, consistently described the IM as a valid exercise of Congress’s power “[t]o regulate Commerce . . . among the several States.” This reliance on the Commerce …

A Gap In The Affordable Care Act: Will Tax Credits Be Available For Insurance Purchased Through Federal Exchanges?, Amy E. Sanders

Vanderbilt Law Review

Millions of Americans rest assured that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act' ("ACA") provides tax credits for health insurance to individuals earning 100-400% of the federal poverty line. The tax credits will be accessible through state insurance exchanges, also known as Marketplaces, which are government- regulated organizations designed to create more competition in the health insurance industry. But a gap in the unwieldy, two-thousand- plus-page statute-either a scrivener's error or an overlooked loophole-is raising questions about whether citizens in certain states are eligible for the tax credits. This "quirk" could be a serious blow to an already contentious healthcare-reform …

Unheard Voices Of Domestic Violence Victims: A Call To Remedy Physician Neglect, Nat Stern, Karen Oehme, Ember Urbach

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Opinion Announcements, Tony Mauro

Chicago-Kent Law Review

When the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision on the fate of the Affordable Care Act on June 28, 2012, several news organizations rushed to report, incorrectly, that the court had overturned the law. Those making the error did not wait for Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. to complete his twenty-minute announcement of the opinion from the bench. But anyone who had listened to the opinion announcement from start to finish would almost certainly have gotten it right.

This article examines the rarely discussed tradition of Supreme Court opinion announcements and their role in the interplay between the court, …

Migrant Farmworkers And Access To Health Care In Minnesota: Needs, Barriers, And Remedies, Rachel L. Gunsalus

Sociology Honors Projects

Every year, migrant farmworkers (MFWs) travel from southern Texas to Minnesota to provide the temporary labor needed to harvest seasonal Minnesotan crops. Migratory agricultural labor exposes workers to increased risk of occupational hazards, communicable disease, and chronic illness. However, the agricultural industry does not offer employer-based health insurance to these seasonal workers, and provides wages insufficient to otherwise cover the cost of health care services. This research investigates the financial and non-financial barriers to health care for Minnesota’s MFWs through interviews with staff from Migrant Health Service, Inc., the only federally-designated Migrant Health Center (MHC) in Minnesota. The findings show …

Health Care Cost Containment: No Longer An Option But A Mandate, Susan Adler Channick

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cost Control And The Affordable Care Act: Cramping Our Health Care Appetite, Barry R. Furrow

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Death Panels And The Rhetoric Of Rationing, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Under The Knife: Health Law, Health Care Reform, And Beyond, Stacey A. Tovino

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Implications Of Rhode Island’S Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver For Block Granting Medicaid And Other Retrenchment, Edward Alan Miller, Divya Samuel, Susan Allen, Amal Trivedi, Vincent Mor

Gerontology Institute Publications

On January 16, 2009, the Federal government approved Rhode Island’s application for a Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver whereby the state became the first granted permission to operate its entire Medicaid program under the state plan and a single 1115 “research and demonstration” waiver. The Global Waiver has been implemented in the context of Republican proposals to turn Medicaid into a block grant which would give states substantially more flexibility administering the program in exchange for receiving an upfront allotment from the Federal government. Proponents have held up the Global Waiver as a successful example of what might be …

Implications Of Rhode Island’S Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver For Rebalancing Long-Term Care Under The Affordable Care Act, Edward Alan Miller, Divya Samuel, Susan Allen, Amal Trivedi, Vincent Mor

Gerontology Institute Publications

Federal approval of Rhode Island’s Global Consumer Choice Compact Global Waiver in 2009 provided Rhode Island with greater flexibility to modify its Medicaid program. Because 96% of long-term care expenditures in Rhode Island were directed toward institutional settings, a primary goal was to facilitate the state’s efforts to shift the locus of long-term care to non-institutional settings. This study draws lessons from Rhode Island’s experience with the Global Waiver for the long-term care rebalancing provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Data derive from 325 archival sources and 26 semi-structured interviews. Results suggest that prospectively documenting …

Implications Of Rhode Island’S Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver For Designing And Implementing State Health Reform, Edward Alan Miller, Divya Samuel, Susan Allen, Amal Trivedi, Vincent Mor

Gerontology Institute Publications

Provisions in the Medicaid statute permit states to apply for waivers from traditional program requirements. On January 16, 2009, the federal government approved Rhode Island's Global Consumer Choice Compact Waiver. In exchange for a cap on combined federal and state spending of $12.075 billion through 2013, Rhode Island received greater flexibility to adopt certain Medicaid program changes. This study analyzes the design and implementation of the Global Waiver to draw general lessons for health reform at the state-level, a key concern given ongoing state discretion to improve their health care systems under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Data …

Chief Justice Roberts' Individual Mandate: The Lawless Medicine Of Nfib V. Sebelius, Gregory Magarian

Gregory P. Magarian

After the U.S. Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius held nearly all of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act constitutional, praise rained down on Chief Justice John Roberts. The Chief Justice’s lead opinion broke with his usual conservative allies on the Court by upholding the Act’s individual mandate under the Taxing Clause. Numerous academic and popular commentators have lauded the Chief Justice for his political courage and institutional pragmatism. In this essay, Professor Magarian challenges the heroic narrative surrounding the Chief Justice’s opinion. The essay contends that the opinion is, in two distinct senses, fundamentally …

What Implications Will The Supreme Court's Taxing Power Decision Have On The Goals Of The Affordable Care Act And Healthcare?, Alberto R. Gonzales, Donald B. Stuart

Law Faculty Scholarship

One of the signature achievements of the Obama Administration is the Affordable Care Act. The Act represents a massive change to the country's healthcare system that includes an individual mandate requiring certain individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld this individual mandate under Congress's taxing power. This Comment will examine the implications of the Court's decision on the individual mandate and the Court's taxing power analysis. A primary objective of the Act is to have more Americans covered by health insurance. This Comment suggests the Court's decision may ultimately result in …

Realism Over Formalism And The Presumption Of Constitutionality: Chief Justice Roberts’ Opinion Upholding The Individual Mandate, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Chief Justice John Roberts upheld the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act because he rejected formalism and embraced realism in constitutional analysis, and because he deferred to Congress, acknowledging its right to make policy choices.

Teaching The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Case, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

The ObamaCare case is one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in modern time. Even though it contains detailed constitutional law issues and is nearly 200 pages long, the case can be taught to undergraduates. These slides help tell the story and can be used to teach the case as well as constitutional law issues such as: (1) enumerated powers, (2) preemption, (3) federalism and more.

Equality Standards For Health Insurance Coverage: Will The Mental Health Parity And Addiction Equity Act End The Discrimination?, Ellen M. Weber

Faculty Scholarship

Congress enacted the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in 2008 to end discriminatory health insurance coverage for persons with mental health and substance use disorders in large employer health plans. Adopting a comprehensive regulatory approach akin to other civil rights laws, the Parity Act requires “equity” in all plan features, including cost-sharing, durational limits and, most critically, the plan management practices that are used to deny many families medically necessary behavioral health care. Beginning in 2014, all health plans regulated by the Affordable Care Act must also comply with parity standards, effectively ending the second-class insurance status of …