Supreme Court ruling is a win for patients

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the Affordable Care Act brought by states that oppose the landmark law.

This is a win for blood cancer patients, caregivers, advocates and everyone in the cancer community.  Patients now know: the critical protections they rely upon are here to stay.

This ruling marks the third time the ACA has survived a challenge that made its way to the Supreme Court.  

The court ruled that states that filed the suit seeking to overturn ACA lacked legal standing to bring the case.  As a result, ACA remains the law of the land.

As Politico reports:

The red states challenging the law, led by Texas, argued that Obamacare's so-called individual mandate became unconstitutional after Congress zeroed out the law's penalty for not having health insurance in a 2017 tax cut package. They said the entire law should fail because the mandate to purchase insurance, which remains on the books, was central to the law's functioning.

However, the states failed to show how they were hurt by a mandate that had been rendered ineffective, the Supreme Court said.

Legitimate health insurance won't be allowed to discriminate against patients and survivors for having a pre-existing condition, as so many plans could prior to ACA.

We won't return to a time when cancer patients and survivors could be charged more for being sick-or denied coverage altogether.

Important policies that made health coverage more affordable for millions of people - such as subsidies for insurance purchased through the exchanges, and the expansion of Medicaid - remain in place.

LLS has played an important role among patient organizations as the case progressed over the last few years. As the case made its way through the court system, we've joined "friend of the court" briefs with other patient organizations, helped lead patient organizations' communications with the news media about the case, and amplified our concerns to federal policymakers.

Our consistent message has been that ACA's patient protections were needed 11 years ago when the law was passed, and they remain critical today.

Of course, as we celebrate this moment, it's important to remember: this isn't the end of our work. LLS continues to double down on our advocacy and will fight even harder to improve the healthcare system so all patients can get the care they need.

We remain committed to building upon the ACA's success and look forward to working with lawmakers to make health coverage more affordable, accessible and equitable.

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