Editorial: High court should act swiftly on health care

Big news for national health care reform: All of the charges and countercharges, the bluster and nonsense and, most important, the corrosive uncertainty, could come to an end by summer.

Rather than file an appeal to an 11th Circuit Court ruling against the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration has formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue during its next session, which begins Monday and ends in June. Two other appellate court rulings have sided with the administration. Opponents of the law would also like the high court to settle these split decisions as soon as possible.

So, count this as a win-win, until one side loses. At least they’ve agreed on when this disagreement should end.

Health care reform is slated to start up in full in 2014. Some provisions, such as the one allowing young adults up to age 26 to be covered under their parents’ plans, have already kicked in. A September deadline just passed for states to submit their plans for how they’d operate the insurance exchanges called for under the federal law.

Meanwhile, most states are scrambling to balance budgets by cutting health costs. On Saturday, Washington state began implementing strict limits on the number of emergency room visits – three per year – that Medicaid will cover. Hospital officials worry this will lead to a less healthy populace, as Medicaid patients begin to self-diagnose rather than shoulder the costs imposed once they’ve met the ER limit.

Medicare, with current costs that are unsustainable, is being closely scrutinized by Congress. In addition, insurance companies have just announced their highest premium price increases since 2005.

So, health care remains a multipronged mess, and the underlying uncertainty surrounding national reform impedes the search for any long-range solutions. Either this law with its mandate to purchase insurance will move forward, or it will be repealed.

If it’s repealed, then politicians can hash out whether they’d like to preserve portions, such as the health insurance exchanges, or start all over.

Health care reform is the most significant of President Barack Obama’s domestic accomplishments. It makes sense for its fate to be resolved before the 2012 campaigns swing into high gear.

Some Supreme Court watchers fear the justices won’t take up the issue until 2014, when the purchasing mandate is imposed. The constitutionality of that feature wouldn’t appear to hinge on actual implementation. While some justices might counsel caution on such a game-changing issue, we believe that the harmful effects of uncertainty should compel them to act as soon as possible.

The nation desperately needs clarity on this question before we can effectively mend our ailing health care system.