On November 10, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments in the California v. Texas case. A group of state attorneys general, led by the Texas attorney general, will argue that the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) is now unconstitutional because of a 2017 tax law that eliminated the ACA’s individual mandate penalties beginning in calendar year 2019. Their effort is supported by the Trump administration, and it is being opposed by a group led by the California attorney general.
The ACA has helped millions of Americans gain insurance coverage, substantially improving access for people with lower incomes and those with preexisting conditions.
The Health Policy Center’s latest study forecasts that if the ACA is overturned, an additional 21 million people nationwide will be uninsured in 2022, with far-reaching ramifications for people and health care providers. States experiencing the largest coverage gains under the ACA will experience the largest increases in uninsurance.
If the Supreme Court overturns the ACA, coverage will decrease considerably in every state, within every age group, and across people of all races and ethnicities, leaving an additional 21.1 million people nationwide uninsured in 2022. Read the full report.
Our earlier analysis in October showed that if the ACA is overturned not only would millions lose coverage but access to care and financial security would decline. States and providers would face significant financial distress as federal spending and reimbursement shrink.
If the ACA is overturned and its consumer protections eliminated, the associated increases in household costs would fall heavily on families with low and moderate incomes and people with significant health care needs.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis of opioid-related deaths has escalated to unprecedented levels. But repealing the ACA’s Medicaid expansion threatens to take opioid treatment away from more than a half million low-income Americans.
