Health Law

Inquirer staff writers Allyn Gaestel, Meeri Kim and Jessica Parks went to three locations Thursday to gauge reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling on the health-care law. Joy in Camden Cries of "Amen!" "Alleluia!" and "Praise the Lord" rang out in front of St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Thursday morning as members of Camden Churches Organized for People (CCOP) praised the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act. "It's a death sentence lifted for me," said the Rev. Marilyn Dixon-Hill, a CCOP member.

Here are the big takeaways from Thursday's historic Supreme Court decision on President Obama's 2010 health-care law: If you already have health insurance, your everyday life isn't expected to change much. If you don't have health insurance, you can be covered even if you have a pre-existing condition. Or you could choose to go without coverage and pay a tax penalty. And if you're staying at a job you hate just for the good insurance benefits, you can jump ship without paying an arm and leg to keep yourself covered.

For Republicans, nothing captures what they loathe about Barack Obama's presidency more perfectly than Obamacare: It's big government run amok and an existential threat to American liberty. But it turns out that Republicans like what's actually in the law. A Reuters-Ipsos poll taken June 19-23 found that Obamacare remains deeply unpopular: 56 percent of Americans oppose the law, while only 44 percent favor it. But the poll also found that strong majorities favor the law's individual provisions — including solid majorities of Republicans.

WASHINGTON - Planning its strategy ahead of a momentous Supreme Court ruling, the Obama administration plans to move ahead with major parts of the president's health-care law if its most controversial provision does not survive, according to veteran Democrats closely involved with the legislation. Even if the requirement that nearly every U.S. resident have health insurance is declared unconstitutional, the remaining parts of the law would have far-reaching impact, putting coverage within reach of millions of uninsured people, laying new obligations on insurers and employers, and improving Medicare benefits even as payments to many service providers get scaled back.

As we near the end of the Supreme Court's term, many Americans are awaiting a decision on health-care reform with anticipation or trepidation. By the end of the month, the court is expected to decide whether the reform law's requirement that individuals purchase health insurance is constitutional.   The principal argument of those in favor of the mandate is that individual decisions to purchase or not purchase health insurance substantially affect interstate commerce — to use the language the Supreme Court has used for nearly a century — and therefore fall within Congress' regulatory powers.

WASHINGTON - Some are already anticipating the Supreme Court's ruling on President Barack Obama's health care law as the "decision of the century. " But the justices are unlikely to have the last word on America's tangled efforts to address health care woes. The problems of high medical costs, widespread waste, and tens of millions of people without insurance will require Congress and the president to keep looking for answers, whether or not the Affordable Care Act passes the test of constitutionality.

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major issues last week: House Medical-device taxes. Voting 270-146, the House on Thursday passed a Republican bill (HR 436) to repeal a 2.3 percent excise tax that the 2010 health law would levy on manufacturers and importers of certain medical devices starting in 2013. The tax would raise about $30 billion over 10 years. This bill also would remove the health law's ban on using health savings accounts to pay for over-the-counter drugs.

About 6.6 million adults under age 26 joined their parents' insurance plans in 2011 because of the U.S. health-care law, the largest one-year increase in medical coverage for the age group, a survey found. The part of the law that lets young people stay on parental plans until 26 helped boost coverage during tough economic times, said Sara Collins, vice president for affordable health insurance at the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based nonprofit that conducted the survey and supports expanded health coverage.

Health insurers will gain $1 trillion in new revenue over the next eight years under the 2010 health-care law, assuming it is upheld by the Supreme Court, according to a Bloomberg Government study. The amount is equal to about one-half percent of the nation's estimated gross domestic product from 2013 to 2020. Insurers would keep about $174 billion - $22 billion a year - for profit and administrative costs. The money comes from U.S. subsidies to people purchasing insurance beginning in 2014 and an expansion of Medicaid, the government's health program for the poor.

WASHINGTON - More than three million health insurance policyholders and thousands of employers will share $1.3 billion in rebates this year, thanks to President Obama's health-care law, a nonpartisan research group said Thursday. The rebates should average $127 for the people who get them, and Democrats are hoping they will send an election-year message that Obama's much-criticized health-care overhaul is starting to pay dividends for consumers. Critics of the law call that wishful thinking.