Company: OCEA
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001641172-25-003155
Chunk: 3445

Company: Ocean Biomedical, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 3445
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 2020, the ACA-mandated “Cadillac” tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health coverage and medical device tax and,
effective January 1, 2021, also eliminated the health insurer tax. Further, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, or the BBA, among other
things, amends the ACA, effective January 1, 2019, to reduce the coverage gap in most Medicare drug plans, commonly referred to as the
“donut hole.” On December 14, 2018, a United States District Court Judge in the Northern District of Texas, or the Texas
District Court Judge, ruled that the individual mandate is a critical and inseverable feature of the ACA, and therefore, because it was
repealed as part of the Tax Act, the remaining provisions of the ACA are invalid as well. Additionally, on December 18, 2019, the United
States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld the District Court ruling that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and remanded
the case back to the District Court to determine whether the remaining provisions of the ACA are invalid as well. The case was argued
in the United States Supreme Court on November 10, 2020. On February 10, 2021, the Biden administration informed the Supreme Court that
the government had withdrawn its support of a nationwide repeal of the ACA. On June 17, 2021, the Supreme Court held that states did
not have standing to challenge the ACA and that the individual plaintiffs could not show sufficient injury to have standing, therefore
avoiding having to make a substantive determination on the constitutionality of the law. While the litigation was pending, on January
28, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order to initiate a special enrollment period from February 15, 2021 through May 15, 2021
for purposes of obtaining health insurance coverage through the ACA marketplace. The executive order also instructed certain governmental
agencies to review and reconsider their existing policies and rules that limit access to healthcare, including among others, reexamining
Medicaid demonstration projects and waiver programs that include work requirements, and policies that create unnecessary barriers to
obtaining access to health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the ACA. It is unclear how future litigation and the healthcare reform
measures of the current administration will impact the ACA.

Other
legislative changes have been proposed and adopted in the United States since the ACA was enacted. In August