Awaiting Supreme Court Ruling on Affordable Care Act

(June 2012) - June is a month of waiting. At the federal level, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) later this month. California has shown signs of wanting to proceed (like Massachusetts did) with healthcare reform even if the ACA is ruled unconstitutional in part or entirely. Congress and the President have three major tax deadlines hitting on December 31, but politics/elections may get in the way of policy solutions for some time. The State of California is again facing massive deficits, but no proposals for solving this have been put forward, so we do not know how behavioral health might be affected. CDCR has put out a post-realignment plan that calls for much more treatment, but this will not kick in until funding is available. The Assembly has rejected the Governor’s plan to abolish DADP as of June 20, but the Senate has not yet acted, so a conference committee will need to take this up. This action will not affect funding in any way.