The Supreme Court to Hear Health Care Reform Challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hear challenges to President Obama’s 2010 health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The case’s central issue is whether Congress exceeded its constitutional powers to regulate commerce and levy taxes when it enacted the so-called “individual mandate.” That provision would require almost all Americans to purchase health insurance beginning in 2014 or pay a penalty for failing to do so. If the Court strikes down the individual mandate, it will also have to decide which of the law’s other provisions fall as a result or which can be severed and saved. For complete coverage of the Court’s announcement, see these Kaiser Health News collections of articles.