The Supreme Court of the United States heard a case regarding the Affordable Care Act, Tuesday. In California v. Texas, the argument is whether the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional now that the individual mandate is gone. Some of the conservative justices showed skepticism that Obamacare would be unconstitutional, saying the 2017 decision by congress to remove the individual mandate was not meant to dismantle the entire law. 

"Many of them were alluding to the fact that Congress never intended to totally repeal the ACA, that they were really looking to sever a part of it," Heather Korbulic, Executive Director of Silver State Health Insurance Exchange said. "I am cautiously optimistic about what that means for their final decision."

The justices are expected to give their opinions in June or July. Regardless of what the high court decides, Korbulic says it will not impact the ACA in the short term. Anyone who is enrolled on the exchange will have health insurance at least through 2021.

"We don't anticipate there being any implications of whatever the Supreme Court decides for at least another year, so get yourself connected to a good plan right now," Korbulic said.

Open enrollment is underway. It runs from November 1 through January 15, which is 30 days longer than in previous years. 77,000 Nevadans get their health insurance on the exchange and 262,000 more get their coverage through Medicaid Expansion. Both are expected to rise because of the economic issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We've seen those numbers increase dramatically throughout the pandemic and that's just a result of the fact that many people have lost their jobs and their insurance as a result of that," Korbulic said.

If SCOTUS upholds the lower court's ruling that Obamacare is not constitutional without the individual mandate, it would make some long term changes to our health care industry. Those could possibly take effect in 2022. It could mean pre-existing conditions would not be covered and the insurance companies could re-institute a lifetime cap of how much they would spend on a specific disability. Nevada does have a law in place that requires insurance companies to cover patients with preexisting conditions.

"We could have a dramatic increase in the number of uninsured Nevadans and then we could also have significant economic consequences and disruptions for our health care systems," Korbulic said. "If we went back to that era and started seeing all sorts of uncompensated claims, that could be really detrimental to our hospitals, for our doctors, and really detrimental to our rural hospital systems."

In the meantime, she says it is important for people to get insurance if they don't already have it. She says four out of five consumers qualify for financial assistance and some do not have to pay anything at all.

"We want to make sure that they understand that right now is open enrollment, that it's very important to have comprehensive health insurance," Korbulic said. "It's really easy to bankrupt yourself if you go without insurance and you have some sort of critical issue come up for you."

If you are interested in a plan, head to NevadaHealthLink.com to shop for a policy and to sign up for one. You can also call 1-800-547-2927. Silver State Health Insurance Exchange is partnering with 600 enrollment professionals to help make the process as easy as possible.

 

 

 

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