The AHA and five other national hospital associations have filed a legal brief against a multi-state lawsuit challenging the healthcare reform law's plan to expand the pool of paying patients through a mandate to buy insurance and an expansion of Medicaid.
Other groups filing the friend-of-the-court brief are the Federation of American Hospitals, the National Association of Children's Hospitals, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, the Catholic Health Association, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, representing teaching hospitals.
The brief argued that U.S. hospitals should be allowed to testify in the lawsuit because they "will be demonstrably—and dramatically—affected by the decision in this case." The law's expansion of coverage would reduce the uncompensated care costs hospitals must absorb, which amounted to $36.4 billion in 2008, it stated.
In addition, the groups "have unique information on this case beyond that offered by the other parties," the brief said. When uninsured Americans delay or forgo routine preventive care, it said, this "actually increases the amount, and the cost, of the care they need when an avoidable illness eventually brings them to the hospital."
Another brief from 35 leading U.S. economists also opposed the lawsuit, citing "significant distortions in the markets for medical care and health insurance that led to the long-running health care crisis in this country."
Read the hospital associations' legal brief on the lawsuit against the healthcare reform law.
Read more coverage of lawsuits against the reform law.
- Supreme Court Refuses to Weigh in With Early Review of Reform Law
- Federal Judge Clears Way for Challenge to Reform Law, Focusing on Coverage Mandate
- Judge Shows Sympathy With Lawsuit Challenging Entire Reform Law, Expects to Rule by End of Year
Other groups filing the friend-of-the-court brief are the Federation of American Hospitals, the National Association of Children's Hospitals, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, the Catholic Health Association, and the Association of American Medical Colleges, representing teaching hospitals.
The brief argued that U.S. hospitals should be allowed to testify in the lawsuit because they "will be demonstrably—and dramatically—affected by the decision in this case." The law's expansion of coverage would reduce the uncompensated care costs hospitals must absorb, which amounted to $36.4 billion in 2008, it stated.
In addition, the groups "have unique information on this case beyond that offered by the other parties," the brief said. When uninsured Americans delay or forgo routine preventive care, it said, this "actually increases the amount, and the cost, of the care they need when an avoidable illness eventually brings them to the hospital."
Another brief from 35 leading U.S. economists also opposed the lawsuit, citing "significant distortions in the markets for medical care and health insurance that led to the long-running health care crisis in this country."
Read the hospital associations' legal brief on the lawsuit against the healthcare reform law.
Read more coverage of lawsuits against the reform law.
- Supreme Court Refuses to Weigh in With Early Review of Reform Law
- Federal Judge Clears Way for Challenge to Reform Law, Focusing on Coverage Mandate
- Judge Shows Sympathy With Lawsuit Challenging Entire Reform Law, Expects to Rule by End of Year