Supreme Court Reviews Affordable Care Act Again Plus Events and Jobs

Since the Congress is stalled due to extreme partisanship and brinksmanship by a minority of even one at times, the Supreme Court has stepped into the vacuum on issue of the Affordable Health Care Act. The lawsuit comes down to the interpretation of just four words according to those who support it. The outcome of possibly trashing the entire act lies with five conservative judges. In a June 9^th article covering statements by President Obama as to why the Court should not kill the Act in front of audience of health care administrators, the Washington Post quotes Obama ““Five years in, what we are talking about is no longer just a law.” () “It’s no longer just a theory. It isn’t even just about the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare,” he said. “This is now part of the fabric of how we care for one another. This is health care in America.”

The intent of the act was to provide affordable health care to all Americans. Yet now the future of the act hangs on the interpretation of four words in the bill that were overlooked in the drafting. While typically such problems with text are resolved administratively, challengers to the law have chosen litigation which has now risen to Supreme Court level. I don’t believe that this law should be taken down in its entirety over the interpretation of just four words any more than I believe that Medicare would be taken down over four words. Some would say that there will be chaos if law goes down, especially, in face of more favorable views of the act since the horror stories predicted by challengers didn’t come to pass.

The law states that tax credits will be available through so-called exchanges, or online marketplaces, “established by the State.” Since not all states established these exchanges as anticipated when the law was written, but rather the Federal government stepped in to create them, the case argues that Federal government-established exchanges should not get subsidies. Congress would have corrected this phase in more bipartisan Congress but didn’t so. Now the Supreme Court takes a shot at potentially invalidating the law which has been in effect for over 5 years and added over 7 million to those receiving health care. The administration and other proponents say the words must be read in the context of a law clearly intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable.

The health care industry will be affected by the outcome of the decision expected this month. Once again Judge Roberts’ vote will be critical just as it was in 2012 when the law was upheld by a 5-4 vote in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Millions more patients funded to obtain our industry’s products means a favorable impact on revenues so it’s best for the industry if the law is upheld and subsidies are made available for lower income citizens. On moral grounds I’d like to see the U.S take its place with most Western powers who recognize that universal health care is a right of their citizens.

Upcoming Bay Area Life Science Events

• Bio2Device Group, Tuesday Morning, June 16, 2015; Topic: “Augmenting human cognitive capabilities with IBM Watson – a way to the future through the Human-Machine communications;” Speaker: Mike Kuznetsov
• Stanford Medical School, Wednesday Evening, June 17, 2015; Topic: “The GutCheck – an EKG for the gut;” Speaker: Steve Axelrod, CEO, G-Tech Medical
• Deloitte and HBA, Thursday Evening, June 18, 2015; Topic: “Digital Innovations in the Healthcare Ecosystem: The Next Generation;” Speaker: Dr. Harry Greenspun, MD, director of Deloitte Center for Health Solutions
• PBSS, Friday Afternoon, June 19, 2015; Topic: “Identification and Monitoring of Impurities and Degradants in drug substances and drug products: Regulatory Requirements, Analytical Strategies and Techniques;” Speakers: Dr. Jim Zhang, Senior Director of Quality Control, Alexza Pharmaceuticals; Dr. Maria Victoria Slva Eipe, Principal Scientist for the Attribute Sciences Department at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, CA and Dr. Christine Gu, Department of Pharmaceutical Science at Genentech

You can download Audreys Picks June 14, 2015 with complete details on the above and other meetings and conferences through Dec. 2015 by right clicking on the highlighted titles. JobsThatCrossedMyDeskThrough June 14, 2015 is also provided.

Audrey