Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Key Variables In Health Law Challenge: Who Has Standing? What Do Four Words Mean?
The Supreme Court has developed elaborate tests to determine if plaintiffs have standing to sue. But their essence, Justice Antonin Scalia once observed, is a four-word question: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 it to you?鈥 To get into court, it is not enough to be unhappy about something. Only people with a direct stake in a dispute have standing to sue. Which brings us to the four plaintiffs in the latest threat to President Obama鈥檚 health care law, to be heard next week. (Liptak, 2/23)
The Supreme Court next week hears a challenge to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul that hinges on just four words in the massive law that seeks to dramatically reduce the ranks of the uninsured. The argument threatens subsidies that help make insurance affordable to consumers in about three dozen states. (Sherman, 2/23)
Three years ago, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts cast the tie-breaking vote in a ruling that saved President Barack Obama鈥檚 signature healthcare reform. As the high court prepares to weigh another challenge that could shatter Obamacare, a review of Roberts鈥 recent votes and opinions suggest he could again sway the case the government鈥檚 way. (Hurley, 2/24)
While the subsidy case moves forward to the high court, another aspect of the law is continuing to raise challenges.
Back in 2010, Sen. Charles E. Grassley proposed a minor amendment to a massive health care bill, requiring that federal lawmakers and their staffs start buying coverage through new insurance marketplaces that would 鈥 if the legislation ever passed 鈥 be set up by the government. In doing so, the Iowa Republican set into motion a strange series of events, entangling both city and federal officials in Washington, triggering one of the most stubbornly resilient legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act, and ultimately giving rise to a bizarre question: Can Congress be considered a small business? (Harrison, 2/23)
On another legal topic, experts suggest that Anthem's recent privacy breach could entangle a number of plans in litigation.
The potential legal liabilities from the unprecedented breach of some 80 million individuals' records at Indianapolis-based insurance giant Anthem could entangle nearly 60 health insurance plans from Hawaii to Puerto Rico, legal experts say. More than 50 class-action lawsuits related to the breach already have been filed in less than a month. (Conn, 2/23)
