On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the individual mandate provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This provision requires people to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. Coupled with the individual mandate requirement is a series of patient protections, including an end to life-time limits, preexisting exclusion limits, and community rating and guaranteed issue requirements.
Many patient groups support the individual mandate, as it provides an opportunity for patients to purchase affordable health care. If the individual mandate is struck down – the community rating and guaranteed issue provisions likely will go down with it; as such, many patients will no longer have avenues to purchase affordable health insurance. For the insurance companies, they agreed to those insurance market reforms (community rating and guaranteed issue) in exchange for an assurance that everyone would be in the insurance pool vis-a-vis a requirement to have health insurance.
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