After a long journey, the healthcare reform law has reached its final destination: The Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that challenges the cornerstone of the healthcare reform law: the provision that requires individuals to buy – and employers to offer – health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty.
Justices of the Supreme Court said they’d hear the case in March 2012, and the high court is expected to rule by the end of June.
The case is so significant the Supreme Court has agreed to set aside five hours for it, as opposed to the normal one hour limit.
To date, two appeals courts have ruled that the health reform law was constitutional; one ruled against the individual insurance mandate – but said the rest of the law was constitutional; and a fourth said it wasn’t timely to rule until 2014.
Altogether, 26 individual states have filed lawsuits asking for the repeal of health reform law.
In addition to the individual insurance mandate, the Supreme Court will also hear a challenge to the reform law’s Medicaid changes.
