Very odd. A few days ago, the NYT ran a big piece claiming that even if Obamacare is overturned, it won’t matter much. From the story:
But experts on health care policy say the practical effect of the court’s decision will probably be less earth-shattering than some people think. If the court takes what many observers believe will be the most likely route and strikes down the individual mandate — the requirement that virtually everyone purchase insurance — many more currently uninsured people are still likely to receive health coverage, they say. Even if the law is struck down entirely — which could happen if the court decides that the other provisions are too intertwined with the mandate — many experts say that some changes the law has already set in motion will continue, probably more slowly, but possibly at a more urgent pace in reaction to the elimination of the federal law.
Today, a front page story reporting that if Obamacare is overturned, it won’t really matter to hospitals:
It was the first Monday in June, counting down to a United States Supreme Court decision that could transform the landscape of American health care. But like hospitals across the country, Maimonides is not waiting around for the verdict. Win, lose or draw in court, administrators said, the policies driving the federal health care law are already embedded in big cuts and new payment formulas that hospitals ignore at their peril. And even if the law is repealed after the next election, the economic pressure to care differently for more people at lower cost is irreversible.
This piece, also from today, similarly communicates the larger point that overturning Obamacare may not matter to health insurance companies. So, in two days, we have seen three different stories in the NYT, each communicating the same overarching message. Amazing.
Although I am far less sure of this than previously, I have predicted that SCOTUS would uphold Obamacare because it reflects the views of the technocratic class. But so does the NYT. Does the “Paper of Record” know something I don’t? I sure hope so.
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