Guest Column written by State Representative Dorothy Pelanda.
On June 26, 2012, the United States Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision on the various cases challenging all or part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known commonly as “Obama Care”.
I had the privilege of attending a National Conference on Health Care Reform this past week, and wanted to share a summary with you.
While many of us think of this legislation as simply a mandate that all persons have health care, this in fact a BIG piece of legislation that was enacted in 2010 that includes a lot of “fixes” to existing laws and programs to deal with access, cost, and quality of health insurance. Many of the provisions have already gone into effect with many states and the federal government having taken steps to implement additional provisions.
Title I of the Act deals with insurance law changes; Title II–Medicaid expansion; Title III–changes to Medicare; Title IV–public health changes; Title V–health care workforce improvement; Title VI–transparency; Title VII–biologics; Title VIII–LTC insurance; Title IX–new taxes; and Title X–Amendments to the ACA.
The Supreme Court has several decision options:
1) uphold the whole law;
2) strike down the entire law;
3) strike down the individual mandate only;
4) strike down the Medicaid expansion only; or
5) strike down the mandate and the Medicaid expansion but leave the rest of the Act intact.
Fifteen states (excluding Ohio) have passed “enabling” legislation.” Every state but Alaska accepted a federal Planning Grant to study their state’s health-care demographics. Some states accepted additional federal money in the form of establishment grants in anticipation of the enactment of the full Act.
Whatever the Supreme Court decides, and whatever each state has done or not done to this point, much work will need to be completed by each state legislature in order to get a Health Exchange up and running by January 2014. According to some experts, the biggest challenge will be the creation of the eligibility system. The Federal government may end up running many of the state Exchanges simply because of the timing.
Finally, changes in the federal government after the November elections could make matters more chaotic for states if we experience Congressional repeal of certain elements of the Act.
As your State Representative, I will continue to immerse myself in as much education and information available to me on this subject in order to represent you to the best of my ability in following through with the Supreme Court Decision.
State Representative Dorothy Liggett Pelanda is currently serving her first term as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives after being appointed to serve during the 129th General Assembly. She represents the 83rd House District, which includes Union and Logan counties, as well as most of Marion County.
You can find more information about and contact Pelanda by clicking here.
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