Health Insurance Info for Colorado

news & commentary on health insurance and benefits

Health Care Reform: It’s Repealed!

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As reported everywhere, the Affordable Care Act has been repealed in the U.S. House of Representatives by a bipartisan vote (well, three Democrats, anyway). For details, go here, here, and especially, here.

What does this mean for Colorado? Not much, for the present, but stay tuned. While Senate Republicans insist that the repeal will be taken up in their chamber, Harry Reid’s words to the contrary notwithstanding, a more interesting showdown is approaching with regards the Court challenge mounted by 26 (and counting!) states’ Attorney General’s, of which Colorado is one. Ultimately the issue of Obamacare, as it’s now universally known, will be decided my nine Supreme Court Justices’, with Justice Kennedy almost certainly being the swing voter. As to the severability issue (the Affordable Care Act was passed without this protective clause) we’ll have to wait and see. While it would be easy to say that striking down any part of the Act would render the entire Act null and void, it isn’t that simple – and without the individual mandate, the Court could still say that what remains is still law. That would create a bottomless pit of debt, since the individual mandate is the financing mechanism in place for the entire program (which is why this is such a growth opportunity for the IRS – who else has the expertise to manage such a burden on the taxpayer?).

For the record, all of the Colorado Democrats in the House chamber voted against repeal, while all of the Republicans voted for repeal.

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