Following last month’s decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals holding the “mandate” of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to be unconstitutional, the states defending the ACA requested the U.S. Supreme Court hear the case during its current term.

On Wednesday, December 18, 2019, a 3-judge panel of the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the “mandate” provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional. The panel sent the case back to Judge Reed O’Connor of the Federal District Court in Fort Worth Texas to “conduct a more searching inquiry” into which of the law’s many provisions could survive without the mandate.

On Friday, July 20, 2019, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon in Washington, D.C. ruled that the expansion of short-term health plans by the Trump administration caused “minimal” difficulty and found that their “benefits are undeniable.” The expansion permits short-term health insurance plans that generally are less costly than those provided under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but are less comprehensive.

On Monday, June 24, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case involving risk corridors for insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A provision of the ACA established these so-called risk corridors, whereby the federal government would control gains and losses of insurance companies to help the companies cope with their risks when they participated in the ACA marketplaces from 2014 to 2016.