OSMA Alert: Supreme Court Upholds the ACA

On a vote of five to four, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) as constitutional, leading to the continuation of health system reform set forth by the legislation.

Deepak Kumar, MD, president of the Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA), issued the following statement in reaction to the ruling released today by the Supreme Court of the United States on the Affordable Care Act.

“In light of today’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio physicians remain committed to effectively reforming an unsustainable health care delivery system. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is an alternative to achieving some of these much needed reforms.

In the wake of this ruling by the high court, the Ohio State Medical Association (OSMA) calls on Congress to improve upon several deficiencies in this legislation by eliminating the flawed Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, implementing cost-saving measures, like comprehensive medical liability reform, and finding alternative ways to achieve access to medical care other than already underfunded and overstressed public programs, such as Medicaid.

The OSMA will continue to advocate for these reforms while working with all stakeholders to implement other important parts of the ACA. These reforms include an increased emphasis on health information technology and prevention and wellness as well as efforts to reform health care reimbursement.

The OSMA will continue to lead Ohio’s physician community in working to ensure that any health system reforms strengthen the physician-patient relationship and eliminate the key flaws within our current delivery system.

In addition, in the wake of today’s ruling, the OSMA calls on the major presidential candidates to dedicate one of their scheduled debates to the topic of health system reform and hold this debate here in Ohio.”

A full breakdown of the high court’s ruling is available here from Kaiser Health News. We will keep you updated as further information becomes available as to the short and long-term ramifications on this ruling.

In addition, please visit the OSMA’s health system reform toolkit, which contains information you need to stay current on the regulations in the ACA that will impact your practice.