The US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act yesterday, what will this mean for finding affordable health insurance in Santa Monica.

On a 5-4 vote the Justices found the individual mandate at the heart of the PPACA constitutional as a tax. On a 7-2 vote the Court did limit provisions of the law relating to the expansion of Medicaid to 133% of the federal poverty level, but at the end of the day, the PPACA remains in-force.

As a practical matter what this means is that we’re back to where we were in early March when the Court heard arguments about the constitutionality of the health care reform law. As is often the case, all the commentary by all the pundits amounted to, well, not much. That the deciding vote was cast by Chief Justice John Roberts was as big a surprise as the LA Kings winning the Stanley Cup so easily.

Still, there’s nothing like a historic Supreme Court decision to focus one’s thinking.

1.     The PPACA  has never been as bad as its critics fear nor as good as its supporters claim. Like most laws, it’s. Like every law it will have unintended consequences. Some of these problems will be “fixed” by lawmakers and regulators over the next 18 months. Some won’t be. But the current system is flawed, too, and we’ve managed to muddle through. The PPACA creates new hurdles for us all to overcome. And the good news is, we will overcome them.

2.     The PPACA is also the catalyst for major changes in the industry. Insurance carriers, brokers,  providers, employers, consumers – will need to carefully think through the implications. For carriers and brokers, this means affirming the value they bring to the system and making adjustments to their  businesses. Change is rarely either fun or comfortable. But change is something we’ve all done over the past several decades.

The Supreme Court’s decision doesn’t change much for Solid Health Insurance Services. We’re still committed to providing affordable, value-based  health  insurance coverage for individuals and small business in  Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacifc Palisades  and Santa Monica.. The PPACA’s encouragement of wellness and preventive care initiatives should improve all our well being, and will help detect serious illness at an early stage.

We will comment on major developments along the way to implementing health care reform. We’ll also keep you posted on the changes which will come with the implementation of the healthcare reform in 2014 and beyond.