Professor Bhagwat Comments on Affordable Care Act for Southern California Public Radio
Professor Ashutosh Bhagwat commented on the U.S. Supreme Court arguments on the Affordable Care Act as a guest on a segment of Southern California Public Radio station KPCC's Patt Morrison program examining the Act's provisions that would expand Medicaid. Some states have argued that the plan is coercive because they would get no Medicaid funding if they do not go along with the expansion.
Participation in the federal Medicaid program has always been voluntary, and states may choose not to take the federal funding, to fund and run their own medical programs for the poor, or not to run any medical program for the poor, Professor Bhagwat stated. The states challenging the law "seem to be saying that if someone comes to you and says ‘we're going to give you a lot of money to come work for us,' and you're pretty much going to say ‘yes' because it's such a great offer, that's coercion, and I just don't see that," Bhagwat said.
Professor Bhagwat, a tenured member of UC Hastings' faculty for more than a decade before joining King Hall in 2011, is an innovative, broad-ranging, and widely published constitutional law scholar.