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Will U.S. Supreme Court Hear Challenge to Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board?

November 13, 2014

Phoenix (11/5/2014)—Today the Goldwater Institute filed a legal petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its challenge to the Independent Payment Advisory Board created by the Affordable Care Act.

The Independent Payment Advisory Board is a 15-member board created to set reimbursement rates for Medicare and to determine which procedures, treatments and drugs will and will not be covered by the government programs that pay for the medical treatment of more than 48 million Americans.  Independent Payment Advisory Board decisions cannot be challenged in court and the Board itself cannot be repealed except for during a short window in 2017.

These features are unique to the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Never in American history has another board been created with such broad authority to impact government rulemaking that cannot be challenged in court or repealed.

“Our government is designed to check and balance itself—if one branch overreaches, another branch is there to correct it. Ultimately, we want the Court to strike down IPAB,” said Darcy Olsen, president and CEO of the Goldwater Institute, the only organization in the country that has filed a legal challenge against the Board.

Congressman Phil Roe (R-TN) has introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board. His bill has received dozens of co-sponsors, including several Democrats. Congressman Barney Frank (D-NY) has been a vocal critic of the Independent Payment Advisory Board and has also called for its repeal.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether or not to take the case, Coons v. Lew, by June 30, 2015.

Read the Goldwater Institute’s petition here.

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