Healthcare Reform

 

Exchange efforts were moving ahead in Alaska without the use of federal funding, but Governor Parnell has put the work on hold to wait for the Supreme Court ruling. If PPACA is upheld, the governor believes that Alaska will be able to move ahead quickly on an exchange because the state can act without the strings attached to federal funds.

Currently all of the states are awaiting the outcome of the Supreme Court’sdecision on the Affordable Care Act lawsuit. In late March, the court heard sixhours of oral arguments on:

• The applicability of the Anti-Injunction Act (if found applicable, the individual mandate cannot be challenged until the requirement to obtain health insurance or incur a penalty occurs in 2014);

• The constitutionality of the individual mandate;

• Severability (what would happen if the mandate is declared unconstitutional, would the entire fall or only parts of it?); and

• State Medicaid expansion.

A decision from the court is expected by the end of June.

 

We hope you will look to Brown Agency Insurance as your go to place for answers on complex insurance questions.  We Serve Alaska’s business statewide.