Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Estimated returns from the MLR (administrative costs to medical costs)

Bruce Webb on Angry Bear was among the first of bloggers to point out that this aspect of the Medical Loss Ratio begins in 2009 and  here and points again to the MLR as it comes into play. A non-profit group estimates if the Affordable Care Act provisions had been effect in 2010, U.S consumers would […]

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Strange Political Prediction—And Other Recent ACA-Litigation Events

by Beverly Mann Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Strange Political Prediction—And Other Recent ACA-Litigation Events Well, as you all probably know by now, there have been two major developments in the courts within the last two weeks on the litigation challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the ACA, a.k.a., “Obamacare). On November […]

Paul Clement’s weird tail-can-morph-the-dog ACA-litigation argument

by Beverly Mann Paul Clement’s weird tail-can-morph-the-dog ACA-litigation argument Earlier this month I wrote a post called “Markets and the ACA: Why the Supreme Court Will Uphold the ACA” that discussed an article-length post by Santa Clara constitutional law prof. Brad Joondeph published on a blog he runs dedicated entirely to the ACA litigation. I […]

Guest post: AMA backs the mandate…

Guest post by Michael Halasy AMA backs the mandate… The AMA has its annual House of Delegates meeting last week, and boy, are they concerned. Recent evidence has suggested that they have lost 12,000 members since 2009. Much of this has been due to the AMA’s support of the PPACA. Today, the HOD voted to […]

It’s not about regulating markets, after all! It’s about regulating the individual!

by Beverly Mann Ah! It’s not about regulating markets, after all! It’s about regulating the individual! ATLANTA — In perhaps the weightiest of the dozens of challenges to the Obama health care law, a panel of appellate judges grappled Wednesday with the essential quandary of the case: if the federal government can require Americans to […]

New wrinkles in the ACA litigation – Part II

by Beverly Mann New wrinkles in the ACA litigation – Part II Okay, well, now y’all know from reading Part I that under the Constitution’s Article III requirement that plaintiffs in lawsuits have some “particularized” (and ya know what that means, from reading Part I) injury or be in imminent danger of suffering one, and […]

The Difference Between Defending DOMA and Neo-Nazis and the ACA

by Beverly Mann The Difference Between Defending DOMA and Defending Neo-Nazis and the ACA A post via Blog of Legal Times on Wednesday titled “King & Spalding Offers New Details on Marriage Mess,” which summarizes a report that day in one of its sister ALM (American Law Media) publications, the Atlanta-based Daily Report Online by […]

Courts and Affordable Care Act…Much Ado About Not Much

by Beverly Mann Much Ado About Not Much The big legal news today was the first appellate-court oral argument, this afternoon, on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. The argument—arguments, actually; two separate cases were argued separately—were to a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the regional federal appeals […]

Laurence Tribe on the ACA … and the Supreme Court justices

by Beverly Mann Laurence Tribe on the ACA … and the Supreme Court justices Argggh. In rereading my comment from yesterday to Bruce’s “Health Care ACA Act: Who does the Roberts Court Work For?” post, I realized that there’s a major part of my comment that’s, well, missing: the part that explains why I started […]