Biden and the Affordable Care Act: Congressional Action, Executive Federalism, State Litigation, and Program Durability
Frank J Thompson and
Michael K Gusmano
Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2022, vol. 52, issue 3, 382-407
Abstract:
Partisan, fractious federalism has strongly shaped the Biden administration’s efforts to reverse Trump’s undermining of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In June 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Democratic, rather than Republican, state attorneys general to uphold the ACA. This enabled Biden to proceed with legislative and executive initiatives to reinvigorate the program. Biden secured passage of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), which temporarily boosted ACA enrollments. He also successfully pursued several executive initiatives to bolster the program. The victories of Democratic state attorneys general and private litigants in the courts during the Trump presidency often provided the platform for Biden’s success. On balance, the ACA’s vital signs have improved under Biden. But the durability of these gains depends heavily on whether Congress approves Build Back Better legislation that extends ARP benefits, and whether Biden can overcome resistance by Republican states in the courts and otherwise (especially concerning waivers).
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/publius/pjac013 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:publus:v:52:y:2022:i:3:p:382-407.
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals
Access Statistics for this article
Publius: The Journal of Federalism is currently edited by Paul Nolette and Philip Rocco
More articles in Publius: The Journal of Federalism from CSF Associates Inc. Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().