Health Care Reform: Action Items for Employers for This Year and Beyond in the Wake of the Supreme Court Decision

In June the Supreme Court issued its much anticipated decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  In an earlier Client Advisory, Arnold & Porter analyzed the various issues at play in the multiple opinions.  The Court issued two key rulings.  First, it upheld the individual mandate to purchase health insurance coverage as a legitimate exercise of the taxing power.  Second, it circumscribed the expansion of Medicaid by holding that the provision in ACA which threatens the states with loss of existing Medicaid funding if they decline to comply with the expansion is unconstitutional.  For employers, however, the impact of the decision goes far beyond these particular holdings.  Specifically, a large number of compliance deadlines are rapidly approaching.  In fact, many of the key provisions of ACA which are intended to expand health insurance depend on employer compliance.