American Bar Assoc poll: ObamaCare likely to be upheld by Supreme Court

The Obama health care reform law is likely to be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, predict more than a dozen academics, lawyers and journalists who follow the Supreme Court who were polled by the American Bar Association’s magazine Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases.

Approximately 85 percent of the panel, who were promised anonymity, predict the law will be upheld.

The law’s individual mandate – which requires individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty – will be affirmed by a vote of 6-3, the group predicts. All of the experts think that the court’s liberal wing – Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor – will vote to uphold it. Chief Justice John Roberts will join them, 69 percent of the experts think, as will Justice Anthony Kennedy, according to 53 percent.
(source)

Two year anniversary of ObamaCare

From Think Progress: Two year anniversary of "ObamaCare" today. While most of the law does not go into effect until 2014, take a look at some of the benefits Americans are already enjoying and what Republicans would take away:

Texas loses all Medicaid funding for Women's Health Program

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday that it will cut off all Medicaid funding for family planning to the state of Texas, following Gov. Rick Perry's (R) decision to implement a new law that excludes Planned Parenthood from the state's Medicaid Women's Health Program.

The federal government pays for nearly 90 percent of Texas' $40 million Women's Health Program, and nearly half of the program's providers in Texas are Planned Parenthood clinics.

But the new law that went into effect earlier this month disqualified Planned Parenthood from participating in the program because some of its clinics provide abortions, even though no state or federal money can be used to pay for those abortions.

According to Medicaid law, Mann said, a state cannot restrict women's ability to choose a provider simply because that provider offers separate services -- in this case, abortion -- that aren’t even paid for by the Medicaid program.

More info here.