WASHINGTON (AP) — It sounds like a silver lining. Even if
the Supreme Court overturns President Barack Obama’s health care law,
employers can keep offering popular coverage for the young adult
children of their workers.
But here’s the catch: The parents’ taxes would go up.
That’s
only one of the messy potential ripple effects when the Supreme Court
delivers its verdict on the Affordable Care Act this month. The law
affects most major components of the U.S. health care system in its
effort to extend coverage to millions of uninsured people.
Because the legislation is so complicated, an orderly unwinding would prove difficult
if it were overturned entirely or in part.
Better
Medicare prescription benefits, currently saving hundreds of dollars
for older people with high drug costs, would be suspended. Ditto for
preventive care with no co-payments, now available to retirees and
working families alike.
Partially overturning the law could leave
hospitals, insurers and other service providers on the hook for tax
increases and spending cuts without the law’s promise of more paying
customers to offset losses.
If the law is upheld, other kinds of complications could result.
The
nation is so divided that states led by Republicans are largely
unprepared to carry out critical requirements such as creating insurance
markets. Things may not settle down.
"At the end of the day, I
don’t think any of the major players in the health insurance industry or
the provider community really wants to see the whole thing overturned,"
said Christine Ferguson, a health policy expert who was commissioner of
public health in Massachusetts when Mitt Romney was governor.
While
it’s unclear how the justices will rule, oral arguments did not go well
for the Obama administration. The central issue is whether the
government can require individuals to have health insurance and fine
them if they don’t.
That mandate takes effect in 2014, at the same
time that the law would prohibit insurance companies from denying
coverage to people with existing health problems. Most experts say the
coverage guarantee would balloon costs unless virtually all people
joined the insurance pool.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.