L.A. Care Health Plan applauds today’s Supreme Court 7-2 ruling that upholds the landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) and preserves affordable health coverage for more than 31 million Americans, as well as critical protections for preexisting conditions and the requirement that everyone have health insurance.
The Court ruled that the states who were challenging the law’s individual mandate can’t prove they would have been harmed by the law.
As a health plan that has championed the ACA as the biggest advance in providing access to health coverage for everyone since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, L.A. Care is breathing a sigh of relief. Now, we can focus on revisions to the ACA to make it stronger and fulfill the promise of coverage for everyone.
Among those improvements, L.A. Care is advocating for the establishment of a public option as part of the ACA law. L.A. Care is the only functioning public option in the United States, since we are a public entity that participates in the individual market exchange created under the ACA. Here in California, that exchange is Covered California, and we have nearly 100,000 members enrolled through the marketplace. Having a public option to provide healthy competition on the exchange requires the other plans to sharpen their pencils and keeps rates more affordable for consumers.
We will continue to advocate for this and other revisions that will increase access to affordable health coverage for all.
-John Baackes, CEO