On April 27, 2020, the Supreme Court held by a vote of 8-1, in the case Maine Community Health Options v. United States, that The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s now-expired “Risk Corridors” statute—which set a formula for calculating payments to healthcare insurers for unexpectedly unprofitable plans during the first three years of online insurance marketplaces—created a government obligation to pay insurers the full amount of their computed losses; and the petitioners properly relied on the Tucker Act to sue for damages in the Court of Federal Claims.
The judgment reversed and remanded the case to the courts below. The opinion was written by Justice Sotomayor on April 27, 2020. Justices Thomas and Gorsuch joined the court's opinion except for Part III-C. Justice Alito filed a dissenting opinion.
To discuss the case, we have Julia Mahoney, Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.