Supreme Court Won’t Decide Constitutionality of ACA

The Affordable Care Act has come before the U.S. Supreme Court three times. In the latest challenge, the Court declined to rule on a constitutional challenge to the so-called individual mandate in the ACA (California et. al. v. Texas et al. S.Ct., 6/17/21). The Court said that Texas, more than dozen other states, and two individuals (“the plaintiffs”) lacked standing to bring the case. The shared responsibility payment for individuals without minimum essential health coverage was dropped to zero in 2019. The plaintiffs’ position was that this undercut all of the Affordable Care Act. The Court said that as the penalty for not having coverage is now zero, the plaintiffs couldn’t show “that any kind of Government action or conduct caused or will cause the injury they attribute to” the minimum essential coverage provision .

This latest decision means that all current ACA provisions are in effect. This includes, for example, the premium tax credit for those who need assistance in paying premiums for coverage obtained through a government marketplace. It also includes the employer mandate, which requires large employers to provide affordable minimum essential health coverage to full-time employees or pay a penalty.