First Edition: December 15, 2010

Today's major health policy news is full of second-day stories and analysis regarding Monday's health law decision by a federal court judge in Virginia.   

Kaiser Health News: Virginia Panel - Implement Health Law And Improve Care
KHN staff writer Julie Appleby reports: "Declaring that 'health reform is worth doing' regardless of what happens with the federal law, an advisory panel appointed by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell recommended on Tuesday steps to meet the law's requirements and improve health care" (Appleby, 12/14).

Kaiser Health News: Checking In With Rep. Michael Burgess, A Physician Who Says The Health Law Has Got To Go
Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey and Marilyn Werber Serafini report: "This lawmaker hopes the House will hold a roll call vote on the repeal effort in the first days of the new Congress" (Carey and Serafini, 12/14).

KHN Column: Is The Individual Mandate Really A Lynchpin In The New Health Law?
In his latest Kaiser Health News column, Robert Laszewski writes: "If the Supreme Court does rule the individual mandate unconstitutional will it really bring down the whole law? I don't see it" (12/15).

KHN Column: Is There Any Hope For Medicaid Reform?
In her latest Kaiser Health News column, Nina Owcharenko writes: "Recent coverage of the proposals offered by President Obama's debt commission managed to gloss over a huge issue that is adding to the nation's deficit -- Medicaid. The impact of this federal-state partnership program on the country's long-term fiscal future is just as real and consequential as Medicare and Social Security. Plus, Medicaid also adds to the financial burdens on states' budgets" (12/15).

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. To Appeal Health Ruling
The Justice Department said it would appeal a decision invalidating a core provision of the federal health-care overhaul, the next skirmish in a constitutional struggle likely to reach the Supreme Court before the 2012 presidential election (Bravin, 12/15).

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Law Ruling Viewed As Limited
A Virginia judge's ruling on the health overhaul may be narrower than either side of the case let on after Monday's decision (Adamy, 12/14).

The New York Times: Ruling Has Some Mulling The Necessity Of Mandating Insurance
Though they have battled for more than a year, President Obama and the health insurance industry agree that the requirement for most Americans to obtain insurance, struck down by a federal judge, is absolutely essential to the success of the new health care law (Pear, 12/14).

The Washington Post: Mandatory Health Insurance Now Law's Central Villain
With a court ruling in Virginia this week that the government cannot require Americans to buy health insurance, President Obama has landed in the position of defender-in-chief of an idea he once opposed (Goldstein, 12/15).

The Wall Street Journal: Judges Divided On Health-Care Law
Within a fortnight of each other, two federal judges in Virginia, relying on identical precedents and hearing carbon-copy arguments, issued diametrically opposed decisions on the constitutionality of the federal health-care overhaul (Bravin, 12/14).

The Washington Post: Health-Care Judge Says He Has No Day-To-Day Involvement With GOP Firm
A federal judge who ruled Monday that a key provision of the nation's sweeping health-care overhaul is unconstitutional said recently that he had no plans to divest from a Republican campaign consulting firm. In a recent interview, U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson said that he invested in the company before joining the bench in 2002 and that he has no day-to-day involvement with the company (Helderman, 12/14).

Los Angeles Times: PacifiCare Ordered To Not Pay $120 Million In Dividends
California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has ratcheted up the pressure in a long-running dispute with Cypress-based PacifiCare (Helfand, 12/15).