UPDATE: Feb. 24, 2020: The Supreme Court is now scheduled to review the ACA case during a conference date set for Friday, Feb. 28.
Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Supreme Court did not issue a decision on whether it will hear the challenge to the Affordable Care Act in an order released Monday.
- The court was scheduled to review whether to take up the case during a conference Friday, but a decision either way was not rendered.
- The case will likely be moved for consideration at a later conference date, though one has yet to be scheduled, according to a review of the docket.
Dive Insight:
The waiting continues for a definitive ruling on the fate of the ACA, threatened by a lawsuit led by Texas and other Republican states.
The silence from the high court on the case decreases the likelihood it will be heard before the presidential election in November, healthcare legal expert and University of Michigan law professor Nicolas Bagley said Monday on Twitter.
"Yes, it's all-but certain that the Court will not hear the case until the fall at the earliest, with a decision after the election. But that was overwhelmingly likely before today," he wrote.
A group of red states is seeking to overturn the landmark health law that ushered in healthcare coverage for millions of Americans and reshaped the industry landscape. A coalition of blue states, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, has stepped in to defend the law in the absence of defense from the Trump administration's Department of Justice.
After an appeals court ruled part of the law was unconstitutional, (but kicked a key question about whether the rest of the law could stand back to the lower court) the blue states appealed to the Supreme Court.
The parties are still waiting to know whether the justices will decide to hear the case or let it wind its way back through the lower courts.
As the ACA continues to face legal and political challenges, its popularity among the public has fluctuated but generally increased. In the most recent polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation, released last week, 55% of those surveyed said they had a generally favorable opinion of the law and 37% generally unfavorable.