June 28, 2012 – Today the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of much of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Experts with the Maryland Public Policy Institute, a nonpartisan public policy research and education organization, had the following reactions:

“The Obama Administration and, by extension, Gov. O’Malley’s administration, may have won in court today, but the loss was for the American people,” said Maryland Public Policy Institute president, Christopher Summers. “The court may have deemed the law constitutional, but it creates a variety of health care policies that do nothing to control health care costs for Marylanders. The state has devoted significant resources in this area and will soon find that these efforts will have little effect in helping Maryland citizens.”

Marc Kilmer, a Maryland Public Policy Institute senior fellow who specializes in health care policy, says the state should focus on health care reform ideas that will truly address the problems that exist in our health care system.

“The policies adopted by the O’Malley Administration will not improve access to care or reduce health care costs,” said Kilmer. “Maryland has already tried the model laid out by ACA – impose more regulations, restrict consumer choice even further, spend more money on government programs. These ideas simply do not work. The state should look at adopting laws and regulations that would put consumers in charge of their health care dollars and allow providers to offer innovative products and services to meet Marylanders’ health care needs.”

The institute recommended a few policies Maryland lawmakers could enact to lower the cost of health care in Maryland:

• eliminate the state’s Certificate of Need (CON) law, which mandates health care providers seek state approval before building or expanding;
• reduce the state-level restrictions on health insurance to allow companies to create and price policies based on consumers’ need instead of politicians’ desires;
• liberalize scope-of-practice laws so consumers would have more choices to meet their health care needs; and
• allow consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines.

“This Supreme Court ruling is disappointing, but Maryland policymakers have the power to enact laws that will counteract some of the ACA’s worst aspects,” said Summers. “It’s up to them to decide whether they will embrace this opportunity or double-down on the bad policies inspired by the ACA’s mandate of government intrusions into the marketplace.”

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