HSPH experts comment on Supreme Court health care ruling

Harvard School of Public Health experts provided analysis to major news outlets following the Supreme Court’s decision on June 28, 2012 to uphold most of the Obama administration’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health care law that aims to provide millions more Americans with health insurance. Here are a few highlights.

[[John McDonough]], professor of the practice of public health, played a key role in the passage and implementation of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law and was a senior adviser on the U.S. Senate committee responsible for developing the ACA.  While he was relieved by the decision, he told Boston.com, “Anybody who wants to sort of sit back and relax after this should appreciate that there are equally monumental threats ahead,” chief among them being the presidential election. He spoke to WBUR about the impact of the ruling on health care reform in Massachusetts. McDonough answered questions during a live chat on Boston.com following the ruling and has written about many aspects on the law in his Health Stew blog. He spoke to Boston.com and ABCNews.com about challenges to the law.

Listen to an HSPH podcast with John McDonough (top right of page).

[[Meredith Rosenthal]], professor of health economics and policy, answered questions following the ruling during a live chat on Scientific American and explained the impact of the court’s ruling on Medicaid on WBUR.

Read more analysis by McDonough, Rosenthal, and [[Robert Blendon]], senior associate dean for policy translation and professor of public health, in the Harvard Gazette and watch a video interview in which McDonough and Blendon explain the law’s next challenge: the November election.

[[Atul Gawande]], professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, wrote for the New Yorker that “the Court’s ruling keeps alive the prospect that our society will expand its circle of moral concern to include the millions who now lack insurance. Beneath the intricacies of the Affordable Care Act lies a simple truth. We are all born frail and mortal—and, over the course of our lives, we all need health care. Americans are on our way to recognizing this.”

Learn more

What now? Health care after the Supreme Court’s decision (HSPH Forum)

HSPH experts on health care ruling: Good news; more work to do (HSPH feature)

Balky states likely to join medicaid expansion (Harvard Gazette)

The legal battle over health care reform (coverage roundup of the ways HSPH researchers have been contributing to the national conversation on improving access to health care and reducing costs)