Health law supporters worry about 'signal' from big insurers to Supreme Court

Jun 15 2012

Analysts, lobbyists and journalists are still examining the announcement that three large health insurance companies  would allow some of the health law's more popular consumer provisions to go forward no matter how the court decides.

ABC: Health Care Law Supporters Say Carriers On PR Offensive – Hoping To Send Signal To High Court
This week a few of the larger health insurance carriers – UnitedHealth, Aetna and Humana –  announced that no matter how the Supreme Court rules on the health care law,  they would allow some of the more popular insurance reforms to go forward. … But today a public interest group supporting the health care law -; Health Care for America Now -; issued the following warning: "Don't be fooled by the Big Insurance Companies" (de Vogue, 6/13).

St. Louis Beacon:  Insurers May Protect Some, But Not All, Health-Care Provisions That Supreme Court Might Void
[America's Health Insurance Plan's Karen Ignagni] weighed in on the issue Tuesday, promising that the court ruling wouldn't necessarily change existing benefits to policyholders insured through AHIP members. ... But [Small Business Majority's Rhett] Buttle says he is concerned that the insurance industry is silent on extending coverage for pre-existing conditions. ACA is making that possible by allowing people with pre-existing conditions to buy insurance thorough special health insurance pools (Joiner, 6/13).

Meanwhile, news outlets continue to write about how various stakeholders are preparing for the court decision -

Reuters: Analysis: Investors Plot Hedges For Healthcare Law Ruling
Aside from an educated guess, little real analysis can predict a ruling that has at least a half-dozen possible results for a law that affects wide swathes of the healthcare industry. ...That has led some on Wall Street to devise complex strategies for profiting from the ruling expected by the end of the month - or at least to hedge their portfolios against significant losses. They include spreading bets between healthcare sectors whose shares will respond in opposite directions based on a given ruling (Krauskopf, 6/13).

The New York Times: How Broccoli Landed On Supreme Court Menu
[B]roccoli has captured the public imagination and become the defining symbol for what may be the most important Supreme Court ruling in decades ... Before reaching the Supreme Court, vegetables were cited by a federal judge in Florida with a libertarian streak; in an Internet video financed by libertarian and ultraconservative backers; at a Congressional hearing by a Republican senator; and an op-ed column by David B. Rivkin Jr., a libertarian lawyer whose family emigrated from the former Soviet Union when he was 10. Even those who reject the broccoli argument appreciate its simplicity (Stewart, 6/13).

Kaiser Health News: AdvaMed's Nexon: Expect More Health Cost Reduction Pressure (Video)
David Nexon, a top health care advisor to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, says that no matter what the outcome is of the Supreme Court deliberations or the fall elections, tremendous pressure to reduce spending and cut the deficit will continue to push lawmakers to find ways to control health care costs (Carey, 6/14).