In the year since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law (on September 23, 2010, public laws 111-148 and 111-152), the Maine Legislature has invested significant time in considering how this state will chose to implement a key provision of the law, the requirement for health insurance exchanges.  That debate will continue in the coming year.  Meanwhile, on the national stage, 26 lawsuits challenging the validity of the federal reforms, some of which have been joined by state attorneys general, including Maine's, threaten to disrupt the entire complex system by invalidating a key provision, the individual mandate to purchase health insurance.  This paper very briefly summarizes these state legislative and federal court challenges to full implementation of the Affordable Care Act in Maine.

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