Supreme Court upholds Affordable Care Act

In a surprise decision, it appears the Supreme Court has upheld all of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The individual mandate, which guarantees health insurance to virtually every U.S. citizen, has been held constitutional as a tax levied by the federal government.

The court also has upheld an expansion of Medicaid coverage which is set to add millions of low-income Americans to the rolls. However, the court has limited the federal government’s ability to impose penalties on non-compliant states, according to SCOTUSblog. The court has limited this expansion, but has not invalidated it.

All other features of the law are retained, including:

• accountable care organizations (ACOs) and other care-transition programs;
• payments for preventive services, such as annual wellness visits (AWVs);
• the home health and hospice face-to-face encounter requirements.