WASHINGTON (AP) — A possible misunderstanding about President Barack Obama's health care overhaul could cloud Supreme Court deliberations on its fate, leaving the impression that the law's insurance requirement is more onerous than it actually is.

During the recent oral arguments some of the justices and the lawyers appearing before them seemed to be under the impression that the law does not allow most consumers to buy low-cost, stripped-down insurance to satisfy its controversial coverage requirement.

In fact, the law provides for a cheaper "bronze" plan that is broadly similar to today's so-called catastrophic coverage policies for individuals, several insurance experts said.

"I think there is confusion," said Paul Keckley, health research chief for Deloitte, a major benefits consultant. "I found myself wondering how much they understood the Affordable Care Act. Several times the questions led me to wonder how much (the justices') clerks had gone back into the law in advance of the arguments."

Monthly premiums for the bronze plan would be lower, and it would cover a much smaller share of medical expenses than a typical employer plan.

"Bronze is a very skinny product," said Keckley.

Starting in 2014, the health care law requires most Americans to obtain health insurance, either through an employer, a government program, or by buying their own policies. In return, insurance companies would be prohibited from turning away the sick. Government would subsidize premiums for millions now uninsured.

The law's opponents argue that Congress overstepped its constitutional authority by issuing the mandate, while the administration says the requirement is permissible because it serves to regulate interstate commerce. The scope of the mandate was one of several key issues argued before the court.

"If I understand the law, the policies that you're requiring people to purchase ... must contain provision for maternity and newborn care, pediatric services and substance use treatment," said Chief Justice John Roberts. "It seems to me that you cannot say that everybody is going to need ... substance use treatment or pediatric services, and yet that is part of what you require them to purchase."

That may be true, but the law's bronze plan isn't exactly robust coverage. It would require policyholders to spend thousands of dollars of their own money before insurance kicks in. That's how catastrophic coverage works now.

It means anyone — particularly younger, healthy people — can satisfy the health care law's insurance requirement without paying full freight for comprehensive coverage they may not need.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli did not highlight the bronze plan in his defense of the law, an omission that may prove significant.

"I would definitely say that if you listen to the court proceedings it would be easy to come away with the impression that the health care reform law was requiring people to buy Cadillac insurance, which is certainly not the case," said Larry Levitt, head of the Kaiser Family Foundation's Initiative on Health Reform and Private Insurance. The foundation is a nonpartisan information clearinghouse.

The health care law does impose a minimum set of "essential health benefits" for most insurance plans. Those benefits have yet to be specified, but are expected to reflect what a typical small-business plan now offers, with added preventive, mental health and other services.

On the surface, the minimum benefits requirement does seem to mandate comprehensive coverage. But another provision of the law works in the opposite direction, and the two have to be weighed together.

This second provision allows insurance companies to sell policies that have widely different levels of annual deductibles and copayments. A "platinum" plan would cover 90 percent of expected health care expenses, but on the bottom tier a bronze plan only covers 60 percent. Employer plans now cover about 80 percent.

"The minimum that people will be required to buy under the health reform law is clearly a catastrophic plan," said Levitt.

In return for taking on more financial risk, you'll pay lower monthly premiums for a bronze plan, making it easier to budget for. You'll be covered for the same kinds of treatments as everybody else, but your plan won't pay the hospital bill until you've spent a good chunk of your own money out of pocket.

A Kaiser study estimated that the annual deductible for a bronze plan could range from $2,750 to $6,350. The deductible is the amount a policy holder must pay directly before insurance payments kick in.

A separate study by the foundation found that people buying individual health policies in the current insurance market end up paying an average of 35 percent of their medical costs out of their own pockets, in line with the 40 percent consumers with a bronze plan would face.

While the bronze plan is available to anyone, the law also provides for another level of catastrophic insurance limited to people under age 30, and expected to be even skimpier.

Such nuances were seemingly lost before the Supreme Court. One of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, Michael Carvin, asserted during the arguments that "Congress prohibits anyone over 30 from buying any kind of catastrophic health insurance."

Verrilli did not challenge Carvin's characterization, but it is raising eyebrows among insurance professionals.

"I don't think that's exactly right," said benefits lawyer Mark Holloway of the Lockton Companies, a major insurance broker serving mid-size companies. "It depends on what you call catastrophic coverage."

Carvin says he stands by his statement in court that the law prohibits anyone over 30 from buying any kind of catastrophic insurance.

"The bronze plan is not catastrophic coverage," said Carvin, who represents the National Federation of Independent Business.

"It's got all the minimum essential benefits in it," he added. "It's got to have wellness, preventive, contraceptives — all kinds of things a 30-year old would never need. It's not remotely catastrophic."

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

WELLESLEY, Mass. (AP) — Police say a driver coming to a stop at a Massachusetts office parking lot stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake, causing the car to jump over a curb and land inside a nearby parking garage on top of a luxury sedan.

Lt. Marie Cleary says no one was injured in the Thursday morning crash in Wellesley, just west of Boston. The sedan in the parking garage was empty.

Police have cited the driver for failure to use care when stopping. Officers can't explain how he got out of his car while it was perched on top of the other vehicle.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A 15-year-old Texas girl who was deported in May to South America after claiming to be an illegal immigrant will return home Friday, a Colombian official said.

The high-level official in the ministry of foreign affairs in Colombia who spoke on condition of anonymity because ministry policy does not allow employees to be quoted by name told The Associated Press that Jakadrien Lorece Turner was turned over to the U.S. embassy Friday morning and was scheduled to leave Colombia quickly.

It was unclear where she was heading. The State Department did not comment, and immigration officials did not immediately return messages. Turner's mother, grandmother and their lawyer did not answer calls.

The girl's family has questioned why U.S. officials didn't do more to verify her identify.

U.S. immigration officials have said they were investigating, but insist they followed procedure and found nothing to indicate that the girl wasn't — as she claimed — a woman from Colombia illegally living in the U.S.

The teen, who ran away from home more than a year ago, was recently found in Bogota, Colombia, by the Dallas Police Department with help from Colombian and U.S. officials.

According to the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the girl was enrolled in the country's "Welcome Home" program after she arrived there. She was given shelter, psychological assistance and a job at a call center, a statement from the agency said. When the Colombian government discovered she was a U.S. citizen, it put her under the care of a welfare program, the statement said.

Her grandmother, Dallas hairstylist Lorene Turner, called the deportation a "big mistake somebody made" and said U.S. officials need to do better.

"She looks like a kid, she acts like a kid. How could they think she wasn't a kid?" Lorene Turner asked on Thursday.

Jakadrien's family said she left home in November 2010. Houston police said the girl was arrested on April 2, 2011, for misdemeanor theft in that city and claimed to be Tika Lanay Cortez, a Colombian woman born in 1990.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday that the teen claimed to be Cortez throughout the criminal proceedings in Houston and the ensuing deportation process in which an immigration judge ultimately ordered her back to Colombia.

The ICE official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to discuss additional details of the case, said the teenager was interviewed by a representative from the Colombian consulate and that country's government issued her a travel document to enter Colombia. The ICE official said standard procedure before any deportation is to coordinate with the other country in order to establish that person is from there.

The girl was given Colombian citizenship upon arriving there, the ICE official said.

The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Jakadrien was issued travel documents at the request of the U.S. National Security Agency and with information submitted by U.S. officials. Colombian officials are investigating what kind of verification was conducted by its Houston consulate to issue the temporary passport.

It was not clear if the teen might be charged upon her return for falsifying her identity in a criminal process.

Dallas Police detective C'mon (pronounced Simone) Wingo, the detective in charge of the case, said the girl was located in early November. Relatives were then put into contact with the U.S. Embassy in Bogota to provide pictures and documents to prove Jakadrien's identity.

Lorene Turner said she has spent a lot of time tracking down Jakadrien, whose family nickname is Kay-Kay.

"In between customers I'd get on the computer looking for Kay-Kay, I was obsessed," she said.

Johnisa Turner said her daughter, a freshman at a Dallas high school, was experimenting with different hairstyles and clothes but "wasn't a problem kid." She was reluctant to go into any details about the deportation, saying she didn't know any specifics.

"She didn't have any reason to leave," Lorene Turner said. "She lived in a nice home (with her mother and stepfather). We were very close. I don't know why she left."

___

Garcia reported from Bogota, Colombia. Associated Press writer Linda Stewart Ball in Dallas contributed to this report.

GALESBURG, Ill. (AP) — Two people who pulled up at a McDonald's drive-thru in western Illinois completely naked face public indecency charges.

Police in Galesburg say a 19-year-old El Paso man and a 21-year-old Galesburg woman have been released from Knox County Jail after being ordered to appear in court to face the charges.

WGIL Radio reports that the duo was still in the McDonald's parking lot when officers arrived just before 2 a.m. Wednesday. Police say the man was crouched over in the driver's seat trying to pull on a pair of pants while his passenger was covering up in a blanket.

WGIL reports that the pair told officers the late night fast-food run might not have been a great idea but that they both still thought it was funny.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.