Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Obama’s Health Care Law

In what’s being called a showdown over the Obama administration's health care overhaul, the Supreme Court announced this morning that its justices will consider a challenge brought forth by a faction of Republican governors and attorneys general from 26 states, as well as the National Federation of Independent Business and two individual plaintiffs.

The case, which involves whether Congress exceeded its constitutional powers when it required most individuals to carry health insurance or pay a penalty, follows several varied lower court rulings on the constitutionality of the law’s insurance mandate.

The challengers have gone on record stating the law’s insurance requirement is an intrusion on individual liberty, arguing that Congress can't use its interstate commerce authority to mandate citizens who choose not to participate in the health-insurance market.

From the law’s inception, President Obama has defended the overhaul, stating that the insurance mandate is a lawful way to tackle what has become a national crisis, one that forces uninsured patients into emergency rooms at the cost of the U.S. health-care system.

To date, the Justice Department has defended the law, prompting challengers to file petitions asking the Supreme Court to resolve the disagreement.

The court is expected to hear oral arguments in March, with a decision expected by the end of June, a timeline that puts their ruling square in the middle of the 2012 presidential campaign.

The Business Journal, Milwaukee, reported in late October that the earlier provisions of President Obama’s health care laws have yet to affect the financial health of insurers such as UnitedHealth Group, Wellpoint, Aetna, Cigna and Humana. In addition, the Republican-controlled House leaders have taken steps to strip certain elements of the legislation apart, thereby guaranteeing insurers’ profitability.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is adding urgency to its reforms with an expected announcement today of as much as $1 billion being directed toward funding to hire, train and deploy health-care workers, part of the White House’s broader “We Can’t Wait” agenda to boost economic doldrums after President Obama’s jobs bill stalled in Congress.

The funding announcement comes at the same time as the country faces a growing shortage of physicians. The Association of American Medical Colleges projects that the United States will have 63,000 fewer doctors than it needs by 2015. That shortage will grow to 130,600 doctors by 2025.

The need for a larger health-care workforce will probably become particularly acute in 2014, when the health-care overhaul is expected to expand health insurance coverage to millions of Americans, reports the Washington Post. With reforms in place by 2019, says the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, 32 million more Americans will have gained health insurance coverage.