Employee Benefit Advisor - Federal Judge Finds PPACA Unconstitutional
On January 31, a Florida federal judge has ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. For more information, please visit the full article.
CIGNA - U.S. Senate Blocks PPACA Repeal Effort
On February 2, 2011, the U.S. Senate defeated an amendment to an unrelated bill that would have repealed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in its entirety. The result was not unexpected. The vote was along party lines, with all 47 Republicans voting to repeal and 51 Democratic Senators voting not to repeal. Two Senators - Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Mark Warner (D-VA) - did not vote. Sixty votes of approval were needed to overcome a procedural point of order. The action comes less than a month after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill on January 19 to repeal the Obama Administration's health care reform legislation.
The Senate did, however, agree on a broad bipartisan basis to strip the law of a new tax reporting requirement (the so-called "1099 requirement") placed on businesses to report all cumulative purchases from vendors totaling more than $600 per year. While there is broad, bipartisan support for that provision in the House and Senate - and President Obama has indicated an openness to revisiting it - it appears it will take several months for that provision to progress through the legislative process.
For more information on the Healthcare Reform, please visit Cigna's Informed on Reform website.