Fierce Healthcare reporters update us on day 3 of the JP Morgan healthcare conference. CMS Administrator Seema Verma was today’s principal speaker.

Today, about a half dozen groups submitted friends of the court briefs in support of the parties seeking immediate Supreme Court review of the 5th Circuit’s decision on ACA constitutionality. The FEHBlog was impressed by the America’s Health Insurance Plan’s amicus brief.

Over the course of nearly a decade, the ACA has fundamentally reshaped the nation’s health care system. Congress in 2017 chose not to disturb that paradigm shift—including the promise of affordable coverage for those with preexisting conditions—when defanging the individual mandate without repealing any other part of the ACA. Invalidation of the entire ACA would flout Congress’s manifest intent, with profound consequences for our health care system and the hundreds of millions of people it serves. This Court should grant certiorari now to make clear that even if the individual mandate falls, the balance of the ACA will remain in force.

Agreed.

Federal News Network reports that the U.S. Postal Service released to the public their five year strategic plan today. The sooner that Congress considers this report and the legislative issues it raises, and other stakeholder views, the better.

Reg Jones in FedWeek explains in FedWeek on whether deferred and postponed federal annuitants are eligible for FEHBP coverage in retirement. It turns out that postponed annuitants (a CERS feature) can pick up FEHBP coverage in retirement but deferred annuitants (CSRS and FERS feature) cannot.