There’s a big Obamacare challenge being argued before the Supreme Court right after the election. Here’s a primer on how it might go, now that Ginsburg has died. nytimes.com/2020/09/21/ups… with @sarahkliff
A few things of note.
Several people we spoke with said that this case may not split along the usual lines. Even though Obamacare itself is a partisan issue, the underlying legal questions don't divide the court ideologically. nytimes.com/2020/09/21/ups…
If there is no new justice in time, and the court splits 4-4, that means the case has years more litigation to go. This case is unusual for SCOTUS, because the appellate court didn't decide the case. If its ruling stands, that means the trial judge will need to start over.
If Congress wants to fix Obamacare and make the whole court moot, it can. It could impose a teeny tiny mandate penalty and the whole issue could go away. It could re-pass the rest of Obamacare with no individual mandate. It could also pass other health reform packages.
Regardless, this case is going to become a big campaign issue. Democrats had a lot of success running on pre-existing conditions in 2018, and the renewed prominence of this case provides a nice way for them to reprise that playbook. nytimes.com/2020/09/21/ups…
Of course, if the court does overturn all of Obamacare, that would be a huge deal and cause enormous disruption. We tend to use "Obamacare" to mean the coverage provisions. But there is way more stuff in that law too that will be really hard to unravel. nytimes.com/2019/07/10/ups…
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The Harris campaign is out today with a paper warning about what would happen if Trump repeals Obamacare. kamalaharris.com/wp-content/upl…
Also, today, I published a story about what would happen to subsidies for about $20 million people if the next president and Congress simply do nothing. nytimes.com/2024/09/30/ups…
The subsidies have brought down the price of insurance substantially--making it free for many low income families, and offering financial help to higher earners who got no assistance from Obamacare initially. But they will expire after next year without action.
Medicare slowth: still going. One of the great (fortunate) mysteries of our time. @aliciaparlap @jshkatznytimes.com/interactive/20…
@aliciaparlap @jshkatz First of all, credit to @ddiamond for coining the term "slowth," to mean slow growth.
@aliciaparlap @jshkatz @ddiamond Medicare has been a budget buster for so long that a lot of smart people have found the program's recent trend of slow growth surprising.
When I was reporting on this story about the fiscal impacts of the GOP debt ceiling bill, I stumbled upon a provision that was getting very little attention but would be hugely consequential. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
The provision is called the REINS Act, and is designed to get Congress more engaged in the details of how laws they pass get implemented--by forcing Congress to vote every major regulation up or down. nytimes.com/2023/05/12/ups…
I started calling regulatory policy experts. Almost none of them knew this policy had just passed the House. nytimes.com/2023/05/12/ups…
Be sure to read @atmccann on the growing abortion pill underground, full of incredible details and never-before-collected data. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
This channel has provided 50,000 pill packs to women since the Dobbs decision.
For context, @clairecm and I wrote about data suggesting that the number of legal abortions during this period fell by around 32,000. nytimes.com/2023/04/12/ups…
A technical Medicare Advantage model change, buried deep in the annual rate notice, has unleashed a lobbying frenzy. nytimes.com/2023/03/22/hea…@ReedAbelson
There is tons of evidence that insurers in the program have been manipulating a program that pays them extra fees for enrolling customers with more illnesses. The change took away payments for some of diagnoses that are gamed the most.
@ReedAbelson and I wrote last year about how nearly every major player in Medicare Advantage is facing a federal fraud lawsuit for this type of behavior. nytimes.com/2022/10/08/ups…
Republicans in the House have been talking about balancing the budget. Since budget season kicks off this week, @aliciaparlap@jshkatz and I took a look at what that would take. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
First of all, balancing the budget in a decade would be hard. It would involve reducing spending and/or raising revenue by $16 trillion. That's around a quarter of federal spending.
The chart above is just an illustration. Almost no one recommends balancing the budget by just cutting everything in the budget by a quarter.