5 key questions for the Supreme Court to consider in a healthcare decision

Health Care Reformers
(Photo credit: codepinkhq)

By Sam Baker – The over-arching question before the court is whether the law’s individual mandate is constitutional. But that’s a complicated question, and the two sides of the case don’t even agree about how best to ask it.

Here are five questions that could shape the court’s ruling:

1. Is this about healthcare or health insurance?
2. Where do the mandates stop?
3. What constitutes an “activist” approach?
4. What happened to the Necessary and Proper Clause?
5. Why does the mandate exist?

While framing the mandate as a way to regulate the healthcare market, the government says the purpose of the mandate is to crack down on “free riders” — uninsured people who go to the hospital and can’t pay their bills, passing the cost of their care on to taxpayers and people with insurance.

But if that’s the idea, Chief Justice John Roberts asked, shouldn’t people be able to satisfy the mandate with a policy that only covers catastrophic care? more> http://is.gd/HOMc8p

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• Will the Supreme Court’s Healthcare Ruling Impact Massachusetts? (bostinno.com)
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• Supreme Arrogance (thedailybeast.com)
• Obama’s lawyer to Supremes: Save the healthcare law (capitolhillblue.com)
• Does ObamaCare’s Essential Benefits Regulation Undermine the Case for the Mandate? (reason.com)
• Supreme Court, healthcare and American exceptionalism (actionforbetterhealthcare.com)
• Why the Supreme Court Justices Won’t Be Crudely Political When They Rule on Obamacare, William A. Galston, Brookings
• What I Saw at the Supreme Court’s Hearing on the Health Care Law, Henry J. Aaron, Brookings
• The Second Day of the Supreme Court’s Hearing on the Health Care Law, Henry J. Aaron, Brookings
• The Final Day of Legal Arguments over the Health Care Law, Henry J. Aaron, Brookings
• The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Brookings Institution

Court Opens Health-Care Debate With Law That May Derail Case

By Greg Stohr – The U.S. Supreme Court opened today (Mar 26, 2012) its historic review of President Barack Obama’s health-care law, three days of arguments that might result in the president’s premier legislative achievement being found unconstitutional in the middle of his re-election campaign.

The six hours of planned debate that began this morning is the most on a case in 44 years. The core dispute — the law’s upcoming mandate that uninsured people purchase coverage –comes on the second day.

First, the justices today hear arguments on a seemingly arcane question: Does the penalty for failing to get insurance amount to a tax?

It’s “the sleeper issue of the health-care case,” said Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. “The great constitutional controversy over Obamacare could end with a whimper rather than a bang.” more> http://is.gd/HMb1Xq

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• Health law hearings open in Supreme Court (mercurynews.com)
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• Supreme Court begins debating sweeping health care law, Bill Mears, CNN
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Judge in NY strikes down $285 million Citigroup settlement with SEC over mortgage investment

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Associated Press – A federal judge in New York has struck down a $285 million settlement that Citigroup reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Judge Jed Rakoff rejected the settlement Monday (11/28/11), and wrote that there is an overriding public interest in knowing the truth about the financial markets. more> http://is.gd/lie1ky

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• Citigroup Deal Haunts Pandit as Saudis Seek to Reclaim Fortune, Donal Griffin, Businessweek
• Judge Rakoff Humiliates Schapiro By Nullifying Citi MBS Settlement, Calls It “Neither Fair, Nor Reasonable, Nor In Public Interest” (zerohedge.com)
• Citigroup May Need to Pay More to Keep SEC Deal, Lawyers Say (businessweek.com)

Supreme Court term will include cases highlighting extent of federal power

By Robert Barnes – The Supreme Court convenes Monday for what could be the most significant term of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s six-year tenure, with an agenda that both reflects the nation’s political landscape and offers the potential to reshape it.

The justices are being asked to decide the constitutionality of the landmark health-care act, the ability of states to enforce strict immigration laws and whether the government can continue to monitor the airwaves for indecency. more> http://twurl.nl/e7mdnc

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• Supreme Court Will Hear Health Care and Illegal Immigration Cases This Term (inquisitr.com)
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U.S. regulator to sue major banks over mortgages

By Margaret Chadbourn and Jonathan Stempel – A U.S. regulator plans to sue major banks in coming days over subprime mortgage bonds, two sources said, in a lawsuit that may hamper a broader government mortgage settlement with banks.

Word of the lawsuits by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, came as a surprise to the market and weighed on bank shares. The lawsuits could add billions of dollars to the banks’ potential legal costs at perhaps the worst possible time for the industry. more> http://is.gd/J3tg2M