State Legislation and Actions Challenging Certain Health Reforms, Essay Example

Next year the United States Supreme Court plans to address the issue of separation of powers relative to implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The court agreed to weigh-in on the implementation of the law, and as a consequence, the law’s intents are likely to become limited. Currently, many states have challenged the constitutionality of this act because they believe it is not constitutional for states to require all of their citizens to purchase health care (Cauchi, 2012).It is therefore likely that the Supreme Court will vote in favor of the states, indicating that the power to make this decision should fall to each individual state rather than the federal government. This would benefit the states by taking power away from the federal government, thereby emphasizing the separation of powers between country and state in terms of health care legislation (Danielson, 2011).

The main reason that the court has decided to weigh in on this case is that politicians in many states refuse to accept the legality of the PPACA. Currently, much of Congress and the Supreme Court is run by Republicans, and their general point of view is that health care should be a state regulated issue rather than a federal issue. Ultimately, this means that it is very likely that the Supreme Court will declare PPACA unconstitutional because the majority of the court members currently hold conservative ideals. Furthermore, the governments of many states with a large amount of influence, such as Florida and Virginia along with 24 other states in joint action, are working towards ensuring that this will be the case (Compton, 2012). Since a large percentage of states wish to overturn this legislation, it is likely that it will occur in reality.

References

Cauchi R. (2012). State Legislation and Actions Challenging Certain Health Reforms, 2011-2012. National Conference of State Legislatures. Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-laws-and-actions-challenging-aca.aspx

Compton A. (2012). White House Defends Verrilli’s Supreme Court Performance. ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/white-house-defends-verrillis-supreme-court-performance/

Danielson D. (2011). Iowa governor signs onto Florida lawsuit against federal health care. Radio Iowa. Retrieved from http://www.radioiowa.com/2011/01/18/iowa-governor-signs-onto-florida-lawsuit-against-federal-health-care/