The historic case about the Affordable Care Act has now been heard by the Supreme Court. It will be quite some time before the Justices make rulings about it. The Supreme Court has released audio of the arguments that were heard on two separate parts of the ACA today. You can listen to it on their website.
This has been a very important week for health insurance. The Supreme Court listened to the final oral arguments regarding specific aspects of the Affordable Care Act today. No matter what the Justices decide, those decisions will affect each and every American. The Supreme Court heard this case over a span of three days. They released audio of the arguments shortly after they were concluded, on the same day they happened. This has never occurred before.
Today, there were two separate things that were focused on. The Supreme Court heard about 90 minutes of arguments about whether or not the rest of the Affordable Care Act could survive if the individual mandate were struck down. Yesterday, the Justices heard two hours of arguments specifically about the individual mandate.
In the past, the Obama administration presented written arguments that showed that the Affordable Care Act could survive without the individual mandate. The opposing side is hoping that by convincing the Justices that the individual mandate is unconstitutional it would result in the repeal of each and every part of the Affordable Care Act.
This portion of the lawsuit is called National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. The National Federation of Independent Business is among the plaintiffs in the health care case. Kathleen Sebelius is the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Supreme Court has released audio of the oral arguments that were heard in court today. You can download them, or stream them, directly from the Supreme Court’s website.
The Supreme Court also heard one hour of oral arguments regarding Medicaid. The focus here is on whether or not Congress coerced states into expanding their Medicaid programs. This portion of the case is called Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services. The Supreme Court released audio of the oral arguments for this portion of the case today, as well. You can download them, or stream them, directly from the Supreme Court’s website.
This concludes the arguments for the most important health care case that the Supreme Court will hear this year, (and quite possibly, ever again). The Justices are expected to make a decision about all of the issues that were discussed this week, in this case, by the middle of June of 2012.
Image by Rob Crawley on Flickr