On Thursday June 25 the Trump administration and 18 state attorneys general, led by Texas, argued in a legal brief filed to the Supreme Court that the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) should be invalidated.
The stakes in this case have always been extraordinarily high, but are even more so now, in the midst of a global pandemic and as the economic crisis causes more people to lose health insurance and become eligible for help from the ACA.
ACA repeal was expected to cause 20 million people to lose coverage before the crisis, but millions more would likely lose coverage if the law were struck down during a deep recession, with commensurately larger impacts on access to care, financial security, health outcomes, and racial disparities in coverage and access to care. Striking down the ACA would also impede efforts to end the COVID-19 public health crisis and deal with the fallout.
The case will not be decided until after the elections, likely in spring of 2021, meaning it will hang over campaigns until November.
Most legal observers think the current makeup of the Supreme Court would rule to uphold the law, especially given that Chief Justice John Roberts has already upheld it in two previous ACA cases, but nothing is ever certain at the high court.
Read more from our partners at Policy Matters Ohio here