The final question today before the Supreme Court is whether the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of the Medicaid program violates the Constitution. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that it did not.
Twenty-six states are challenging Congress’s decision in the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid coverage, an expansion that the states argue will bust their budgets. The states are relying on what is known as the “coercion theory,” arguing that federal Medicaid funding they rely on will be taken away if the states do not agree with this portion of the law. They also argue that Congress is achieving something that it doesn't have the power to do; that is, expand Medicaid eligibility in all of the states.
Defenders of the Medicaid expansion provision argue that states can decide whether they want to participate in Medicaid on the terms outlined in the Act; if they decline to do so, they have plenty of time to come up with an alternative plan.
Division of Time:
30 minutes: U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli
30 minutes: 26 states (NFIB is not involved on this issue) (Paul Clement)