In an unexpected move, the Justice Department filed a brief this evening urging a Texas court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act’s crucial insurance reforms—including the prohibition on refusing to cover people with preexisting conditions. Although the ACA is not in immediate peril, the brief represents a blow to the integrity of the Justice Department. […]
When you bring a federal lawsuit, you have to show that you’ve suffered an injury that the defendant has caused and that, if you prevail, the court can enter relief that will redress that injury. In assessing the sufficiency of your claim for standing, the court—in principle, at least—is supposed to assume that you’ll prevail […]
This post was co-authored with Eli Savit, an attorney and adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School. In a New York Times op-ed this week, we argued that a Michigan bill that would impose work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits any program […]
This post was co-authored with Eli Savit, an attorney and adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School. As we highlighted yesterday in the New York Times, a Michigan bill to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients would have severe racially discriminatory effects. The bill exempts people from the work requirement if they live […]
That’s the title of an op-ed that Eli Savit and I just published at the New York Times. For those who are too poor to afford health insurance, Medicaid is a lifeline. This joint federal and state program doesn’t care whether you’re white or black, Christian or Muslim, Republican or Democrat, a city-dweller or a […]
Together with Scott Levy and Rahul Rajkumar, both formerly of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, I’ve got a new piece out in the New England Journal of Medicine: In an ambitious effort to slow the growth of health care costs, the Affordable Care Act created the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) […]
Earlier this week, the Court of Federal Claims certified a class action brought by insurers to recover the cost-sharing payments that President Trump unceremoniously terminated. At first blush, the court’s opinion looks unremarkable. Because insurers share a common legal claim—you promised to pay me, and you broke that promise—it makes sense to certify a single […]
This piece is co-authored by Rachel Sachs, associate professor of law at Washington University Law School. It’s cross-posted at the Health Affairs Blog. Although drug formularies are ubiquitous in Medicare and the private insurance market, they’re absent in Medicaid. By law, state Medicaid programs that offer prescription drug coverage (as they all do) must cover all drugs approved […]
Credit where credit is due: the Trump administration announced yesterday that it won’t look the other way if Idaho flouts the Affordable Care Act. The ACA “remains the law and we have a duty to enforce and uphold the law,” CMS administrator Seema Verma explained in a letter to Idaho’s governor and its insurance director. Maybe it’s a […]
I was gone last week when twenty states filed yet another lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. But no matter. This case isn’t going anywhere—or at least it shouldn’t go anywhere. In their complaint, the states point out (rightly) that the Supreme Court upheld the ACA in NFIB v. Sebelius only because […]
I’ve got a new piece at Vox digging into Idaho’s decision to flout the Affordable Care Act. If you want to learn something about Idaho administrative law (I know, I know, pure clickbait) this is the place to look. I also examine the analogy between what Idaho’s doing and marijuana legalization. The upshot is that […]
That’s the title of a new piece of mine that came out in JAMA this morning. It’s pretty timely: a lawsuit was filed last week challenging CMS’s approval of Kentucky’s waiver, which includes work requirements. More waivers, and more litigation, are sure to come. I’m no fan of work requirements. They’re harsh, stigmatizing, and ineffective. And they will hurt people, […]
I’m proud to announce that Michigan will be hosting the third annual Administrative Law New Scholarship Roundtable in June. The first two roundtables were outstanding, and I have high hopes for this year’s event. The Roundtable is an excellent opportunity for young admin law scholars to get low-pressure feedback on their work from senior scholars in the field. From […]
That’s the title of a new book by Lisa Manheim and Kathryn Watts. From the press release: The book emerged from a class Watts and a colleague put together — at the request of students — within weeks of Trump’s election. The feedback they received, along with news coverage of the class, helped to confirm […]
A few months back, I flagged an opinion from a D.C. district court holding that a new EEOC rule governing wellness programs was arbitrary and capricious. The rule allowed employers to impose huge penalties on employees who refused to participate in wellness programs, even though the Americans with Disabilities Act says those programs must be […]