Governors grappling with ACA’s murky future

Sisolak, colleagues eye upcoming court ruling

SALT LAKE CITY — As they gathered at a conference in Utah, governors from around the U.S. were starting to think about what they will do if an appeals court upholds a lower court ruling overturning former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

More than 20 million Americans would be at risk of losing their health insurance if the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a Texas-based federal judge who in December declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional because Congress had eliminated an unpopular tax it imposed on people who did not buy insurance.

The final word on striking down the law will almost certainly come from the Supreme Court, which has twice upheld the 2010 legislation.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, signed a bill this year prohibiting health insurers from denying coverage to patients because of pre-existing conditions — a pre-emptive move in case the ACA were struck down.

He said this week at the summer meeting of the National Governors Association that he will ask his recently created patient protection commission to come up with recommendations for how to ensure patients don’t lose coverage if the law is overturned.

That would affect about 200,000 people enrolled in Medicaid expansion in Nevada.

“To rip that away from them would be devastating to a lot of families,” Sisolak said.

Nevada is among a coalition of 20 Democratic-leaning states, led by California, that appealed the lower-court ruling and is urging the appeals court to keep the law intact.

At a news conference Thursday, Democrats touted the protections they’ve passed to prevent people from losing health coverage.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed laws this year that enshrine provisions of the ACA into state law, including guarantees to insurance coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions and access to contraception without cost-sharing.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his state is deep in contingency planning because 5 million people could lose health insurance if the law were struck down and the state doesn’t have enough money to make up for the loss of federal dollars.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, said he wants to see how the court rules before he makes any decisions about how his state would deal with the loss of Medicaid funds but that Arizona has backup funds available.

It is unknown when the threejudge panel will rule.

Rick Bowmer The Associated Press Gov. Steve Sisolak speaks Wednesday at the summer conference of the National Governors Association in Salt Lake City. He said an adverse ruling on the Affordable Care Act would be devastating for many families in Nevada.