The Supreme Court Decision: What We Know, What We Don’t

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you also spent Thursday morning listening for the “click-click-click” on SCOTUSblog, waiting for Lyle and his team of live-blogging lawyers to relay the decision. You probably saw many of the #SCOTUS tweets, and even laughed at the clever ones. Your inbox overflowed with news alerts and press releases from all corners of the health policy universe.  

While there was certainly no shortage of media coverage on the decision, coverage doesn’t necessarily mean clarity. The decision settled some questions once and for all, but it raised a number of new ones.

CHI’s newest issue brief, The Supreme Court Ruling on the Affordable Care Act: Implications for Colorado, explores the impact of the decision—both the questions it answered and the questions it didn’t. While none of us at CHI are lawyers—and our crystal ball isn’t much clearer than yours—we’ve studied the ruling and how it might impact the way health care is delivered and paid for in Colorado.

The issue brief explores these questions:

• How many Coloradans are expected to become newly insured under the ACA?
• Beginning in 2014, how many currently uninsured Coloradans will be required to purchase health insurance coverage or pay the tax penalty?
• The aftermath: What are the five big questions facing Colorado health care leaders?

It’s important to note that this decision, while certainly destined for the health policy history books, isn’t the end of the national conversation on health reform. The winners of the election in 2012—at the presidential, congressional and local levels—will play a significant role in shaping the health care system in the coming decade. Stay tuned.