The U.S. Supreme Court has begun hearing arguments in the case concerning the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The review is expected to have major implications for the healthcare and insurance industries no matter the court's decision, and may have other effects as well.
The entire case is scheduled to take six hours over the course of three days. The first question to be addressed is whether a suit can be filed against a particular provision of the law before it has gone into effect. Of the four lower courts that have addressed the PPACA, one ruled that people cannot file suits against the provision requiring them to purchase health insurance until it goes into effect. Should the Supreme Court agree, some questions could remain unresolved until 2015.
The second day, the court will hear arguments addressing the individual mandate itself, which states that Americans must purchase health insurance coverage or pay a penalty. Supporters argue that the economic impact of healthcare warrants this level of Congressional action and say that most people need healthcare, while failure to purchase insurance typically leads to greater expenses for others.
If this part of the law is upheld, its supporters say Americans should find health insurance rates decrease in time. This would be true for those with employee benefit coverage as well as consumer policies.
