Company: UHS
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-027785
Chunk: 282

Company: UNIVERSAL HEALTH SERVICES INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 282
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 the U.S. and the 

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impacted foreign countries, we can provide no assurance that any strategies we implement to mitigate the impact of such tariffs or other trade actions will be successful;

•an increasing number of legislative initiatives have been passed into law that may result in major changes in the health care delivery system on a national or state level. For example, Congress has reduced to $0 the penalty for failing to maintain health coverage that was part of the original Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health and Education Reconciliation Act (collectively, the "Legislation") as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. To date, the Biden administration has issued executive orders implementing a special enrollment period permitting individuals to enroll in health plans outside of the annual open enrollment period and reexamining policies that may undermine the Legislation or the Medicaid program. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (“IRA”) was passed on August 16, 2022, which among other things, allows for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") to negotiate prices for certain single-source drugs reimbursed under Medicare Part B and Part D. The American Rescue Plan Act’s expansion of subsidies to purchase coverage through a Legislation exchange, which the IRA continued through 2025, has increased exchange enrollment. However, the Trump administration has already taken steps to undo certain Biden-era executive orders, including those intended to lower drug costs for beneficiaries, and to freeze funding for federal programs. While the administration’s initial freeze has since been rescinded, the administration is likely to make other attempts to reduce federal program expenditures and can generally be expected to oppose increases in ACA and Medicaid enrollment. If the subsidies are not extended beyond 2025, exchange enrollment may be adversely impacted;

•there have been numerous political and legal efforts to expand, repeal, replace or modify the Legislation, since its enactment, some of which have been successful, in part, in modifying the Legislation, as well as court challenges to the constitutionality of the Legislation. The U.S. Supreme Court held in California v. Texas that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the Legislation’s requirement to obtain minimum essential health insurance coverage, or the individual mandate.  The Court dismissed the case without specifically ruling on the constitutionality of the Legislation. As a result, the Legislation continued to remain law, in its entirety. On September 7, 2022, the Legislation faced its most recent challenge when a Texas Federal District Court judge, in the case of Braidwood Management v. Becerra,