WASHINGTON, DC-By a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court this morning upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Obama Administration’s signature health care reform law--including the controversial requirement of an individual mandate on which the entire act relies. The ruling is a surprise to observers; after the arguments made before the Court earlier this year, it was widely assumed that the Court would strike down portions or all of the law as unconstitutional. However, the Supreme Court decision, which had the support of Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld the individual mandate as constitutional under the Tax Clause.
The Court did strike down parts of the Act’s Medicaid funding formula, which could conceivably have an impact on the skilled nursing sector. At close to 200 pages, the industry is still reading through the decision to determine what, exactly, the impact will be on that asset class as well as the entire health care real estate sector.
“Right now it is impossible to say how the different asset classes will be impacted in the long run,” Jones Lang LaSalle senior vice president Art Turowski told GlobeSt.com shortly after the ruling was released. “We must wait at least several weeks to see what direction things will go.”
One thing is clear, though, he adds: DC’s office space could receive a boost from the ruling. Now that the main challenge to it has been knocked down, the Department of Health and Human Services will have an expanded mandate, Turowski says. “That will likely play out in the form of additional real estate needs.”
GlobeSt.com will be following up this story with industry reaction.
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