Here & Now

Affordable Care Act Challenged in Court

Frederica Freyberg:

The question of whether Obamacare should continue to exist came front and center this week when the U.S. Supreme Court held oral arguments over whether it should be repealed. Republicans have worked to overturn the Affordable Care Act since its enactment ten years ago. President-elect Biden has vowed to expand it. But the ACA got another test before the high court when it considered whether its provisions like coverage for pre-existing conditions can remain even if the individual mandate to hold insurance is struck down. All of this comes as the ACA enrollment window is now open. Bobby Peterson is executive director of ABC for Heath, a public interest law firm that helps consumers access and navigate the health care system. Thanks for being here.

Bobby Peterson:

Glad to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:

What was your take on the direction of the high court when it comes to this question of whether the ACA should be repealed?

Bobby Peterson:

Well, this is one of the most challenged acts in modern history but it’s the seventh time in eight years that the ACA has been challenged. This time it’s some complicated legal arguments that relate to standing. Do the states that are challenging this have the opportunity to challenge, have they suffered a harm? The next part of it is do they have — is the constitutional issue related to the mandate, is it constitutional or not now that they’ve zeroed out the tax. You may remember that originally the ACA passed the Supreme Court review because they considered it a tax. Once the tax became zero, people wondered well, does that ACA — is it still valid? The third issue then is severability and that’s the big issue whether or not because potentially if the Supreme Court finds that the mandate is unconstitutional, does that wipe out the whole ACA. I was really heartened by the conversation of the justices and listening to some of the oral argument that they had serious doubts about whether eliminating the mandate as unconstitutional could take out the whole ACA. So the severability issue becomes quite remote at least from listening to the argument. You never know what’s going to happen. But I think the main takeaway… (video freezes) …right now we’re in open enrollment. It’s an opportunity for people to sign up for health care coverage.

Frederica Freyberg:

Right. So you were just saying that any decision is not likely to come on this until June and, as you say, the enrollment window for 2021 ACA plans opened November 1 and is open until December 1. What should people expect that may be new or different this year? Like how do premiums look?

Bobby Peterson:

Premiums look pretty good. I think generally there’s a lot of availability on the marketplace. We have an opportunity for people to shop on the marketplace. I think a good place to go is the wiscover.com website that we work with covering Wisconsin and the insurance commissioner set up. A lot of good information, how to access help. You may also want to look at your federal poverty limit. There’s a federal poverty calculator that you can click on and go through and estimate what your income is. So there’s a lot of opportunities to sign up for coverage for 2021. If you’re facing coverage challenges right now, it’s a good idea to — if you’re looking at December 1, you need to get an application into the marketplace before the 15th of November. So that window is closing, if you need immediate coverage, on December 1. But there is time to go through and shop and look at options for 2021 all the way through December 15.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Bobby Peterson, we need to leave it there. We appreciate your expertise on this and we’ll of course be checking back in with you as this process proceeds. Thanks very much.

Bobby Peterson:

You’re welcome. Thank you.