Contemplating the options: What will become of the health law?

With the Supreme Court arguments complete, media outlets consider the various scenarios that could play out, and the complications that could arise. To quote the Tom Petty song: "The waiting is the hardest part."

Politico: States Stick To Health Law Strategies
This week at the Supreme Court showed that President Barack Obama's health care law could face a real threat of being overturned -; but so far, the states don't show any signs that they're going to change their implementation plans (Millman, 3/29). 

The Associated Press: High Court Has Options On Health Care Law
The arguments are done and the case has been submitted, as Chief Justice John Roberts says at the end of every Supreme Court argument. Now the justices will wrestle with what to do with President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. They have a range of options, from upholding the law to striking it down in its entirety. The court also could avoid deciding the law's constitutionality at all, although that prospect seems remote after this week's arguments (Sherman and Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/30).

NPR's SHOTS blog: Thinking The Unthinkable: What If The Whole Affordable Care Act Goes Down?
Here are just a few of the questions a complete declaration of unconstitutionality might raise: Almost every state, including many that have sued to block the health law, has received millions of dollars to start planning to put the law into effect. Will they have to give that money back? ... About 50,000 people are enrolled in temporary "Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans" for those who were previously uninsured for at least six months. If the law is declared invalid, that program would very likely have to shut down in fairly short order, leaving those people once again uninsured. ... In some cases the federal government would simply lose the ability to enforce rules (Rovner, 3/29).

Kaiser Health News: Webcast Replay: Deconstructing The Supreme Court's Historic Health Law Arguments
After six hours of historic arguments on the health law, the court now begins its deliberations. What were the key moments in the debate, and how might they affect the outcome? Our panel includes KHN Senior Correspondent Mary Agnes Carey, who is joined by Stuart Taylor, attorney, author and KHN legal analyst; Tom Goldstein, Goldstein & Russell, P.C., and publisher of SCOTUSblog; and Julie Rovner, health policy correspondent, NPR (3/28). 

The New York Times: Here To There, It All Hinges On One Person
No, the spokeswoman said, Pedro Espada Jr. is not currently serving as president of the Soundview Health Care Network. … That is because he has daily appointments in a federal court in Brooklyn to listen to a parade of witnesses testify that he looted the clinics run by Soundview. … Whatever version of reality the jury settles on, the Espada trial … has common strands with the case argued this week in the United States Supreme Court over the constitutionality of the national health care reform act that became law in March 2010. Much depends on a single person (Dwyer, 3/29).