Important 2012 events: Supreme Court's ACA ruling

In looking back at the year 2012, one of the most momentous occasions was the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act. Here are a few of our posts on the topic:

Broccoli, Coercion, and Severability: Three days of SCOTUS arguments on the Affordable Care Act: Liz summarized the legal issues the Court was considering: the constitutionality of the law's individual mandate, whether the federal government could force states to expand their Medicaid programs as a condition of continuing to participate in Medicaid, and whether the law as a whole could stand if a single provision were to be found unconstitutional. As we now know, the required Medicaid expansion was the one aspect of the law that the Court struck down; it's now optional for states to expand Medicaid eligibility to adults earning up to 133% of the federal poverty level.

The curious case of broccoli and health reform: Kim talked to public health experts about communication, asking, "Can reform supporters, and public health advocates in particular, compete against the bogeyman of government-mandated broccoli consumption?"

Mr. Republican lawmaker, have you tried to purchase private health insurance recently? Celeste made a powerful case for the ACA by sharing her daunting experience applying for an individual health insurance policy.

Public health reaction to Supreme Court's ACA ruling: 'Surprised and then ecastatic': Kim wrote, "For me, there were few better places to hear about today’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act and its individual insurance mandate than at a meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA)."

Supreme Court decision is great for public health -- but fate of 16 million poorest uninsured is still unclear: Liz was glad that the ACA survived the Court challenge, but was concerned about the impact of the Justices making the Medicaid expansion optional for states.