What happens if the Supreme Court decides to declare the entire Affordable Care Act unconstitutional? There is much speculation about what the result will be. One thing is known, however. UnitedHealth Care has announced that it will continue to offer some of what the ACA requires, no matter what the Supreme Court rules.
Sometime this month, the Supreme Court will reveal its ruling about whether or not the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. It might let the entire thing continue, as it stands, or it might call the whole ACA unconstitutional, and repeal it all. Or, it might pick and choose which parts are ok, and which are not. No one knows for certain.
There has been a lot of speculation about exactly what the Supreme Court will decide. It is clear that if the entire ACA disappears that American consumers will probably lose many of the protections that it currently requires health insurance companies to offer. After all, it took the creation of federal regulations in order to make some insurers play fair. Without those regulations, they could decide to go back to treating customers incredibly badly, once again.
UnitedHealth Group is one of the largest health insurers in the United States. It has made an announcement that it will continue to offer some of the consumer protections that are part of the Affordable Care Act even if the Supreme Court decides the entire ACA is unconstitutional.
Specifically, UnitedHealth Group will continue to cover young adults, who are between the ages of 18 and 26, under their parent’s health plans. It will also continue to offer coverage without lifetime limits. It will continue to provide at least some types of preventative health care without requiring co-payments from patients, (such as immunizations, and screening for diabetes).
It is unclear if UnitedHealth Group will decide to continue to offer everything that the ACA has defined as preventative care without requiring co-payments if the Supreme Court kills the entire Affordable Care Act. It is not known if UnitedHealth Group would choose to provide coverage to a person who has a pre-existing condition if the ACA isn’t there to require it to do so. Things are still a bit up in the air, for now.
Some say that if UnitedHealth Group decides to keep offering the protections provided in the ACA that it will influence other insurers to do the same. This, too, is little more than speculation right now.
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