Is US Health-Care Reform on Track for 2014? - WebMD

Is U.S. Health-Care Reform on Track for 2014?

Health policy experts weigh in on the fate of the Affordable Care Act

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Karen Pallarito

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, July 11 (HealthDay News) -- At the heart of President Barack Obama's sweeping yet controversial health-reform law is the largest expansion of health insurance in decades, and it's set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2014. But some observers wonder whether it will get off the ground as scheduled.

The law requires most adults to purchase health insurance or face a penalty -- the so-called individual mandate. It seeks to broaden health insurance coverage by:

• creating state health insurance exchanges where individuals can buy coverage on their own -- in some cases, with federal subsidies;


• expanding Medicaid, the government insurance program for poorer Americans;


• and requiring all but the smallest employers, those with 50 or more workers, to offer health insurance or pay a fine.

But in a surprise announcement last week, the Obama administration delayed the employer mandate, granting companies another year -- until 2015 -- to work through federal rules and reporting requirements.

Could the "individual mandate" be next? Is further upheaval in store?

"It does call into question, 'Is this just a one-time thing or the beginning of more delays and changes,'" said Steve Wojcik, vice president of public policy at the National Business Group on Health, in Washington, D.C.

With the 2014 deadline fast approaching and a lack of definitive guidance from the federal government on implementing some parts of the law, the Affordable Care Act -- dubbed "Obamacare" -- remains a work in progress.

"I'm actually in the middle of still reading proposed regulations for exchanges," said Cristine Vogel, an associate director in the Chicago-based health-care practice of Navigant Consulting, Inc.

Timothy Jost, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Va., said core parts of the law, including the exchanges and individual mandate, can operate without the employer mandate. "I think the train is still on track, although not moving as quickly as I would like," he said.

Half of states sit out Medicaid expansion

The Affordable Care Act faced its most significant challenge last year when the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether requiring most consumers to have health insurance, or pay a penalty, was constitutional. The high court upheld this individual mandate last June. But it also ruled that states could opt out of expanding Medicaid -- the federal-state health insurance program for the poor and disabled.

Expanding Medicaid to more low- and middle-income people is one of the ways the architects of the health-reform law envisioned reducing the ranks of the nation's uninsured by up to 30 million people.

Under the law, people making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level may qualify for coverage under the Medicaid expansion. (That's as much as $15,856 for an individual or $32,499 for a family of four.)