Where does Brett Kavanaugh stand on health care issues?

What does the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be the newest Supreme Court Justice mean for health care? That question is one of many that concern Democrats about the man who will most likely replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.

There are a number of key health care issues that the court could have a big impact in shaping in the coming years: abortion rights, the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, among others.

Related: Where do LGBT workplace rights stand after Kennedy’s departure?

While Kavanaugh, who since 2008 has been a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is definitely considered a conservative and has generally ruled in favor of conservative positions on these issues, analysts are quick to point out that his rulings have often been narrow and fall short of endorsing the position that many conservatives hope the court will ultimately embrace on these matters.

In 2011, Kavanaugh was part of a three-judge appeals panel that heard a challenge to the ACA, notably the individual mandate. While his two colleagues ruled that the mandate was constitutional, Kavanaugh dissented on jurisdictional grounds. In his dissent, Kavanaugh did not address whether he believed the mandate was constitutional, but wrote that the court had no business hearing the case until the tax penalty had actually been levied.

The fact that Kavanaugh referred to the individual mandate as a tax suggests that he may have accepted the Obama administration’s reasoning and therefore the constitutionality of the law, writes Damon Root of Reason.

Similarly, Kavanaugh dissented from a recent ruling that U.S. authorities must allow a detained undocumented minor to get an abortion. Kavanaugh’s dissent was again relatively narrow and focused on jurisdiction. He acknowledged that the young woman had the right to get an abortion but said the court had overstepped its authority in ruling that she had the right to “an immediate abortion on demand.”

Medicaid is another potentially important legal issue on health care. In the past, the court has been divided over the extent to which health care providers are entitled to Medicaid payments. In 1990, the court ruled that hospitals could sue to obtain what they believe they are owed in Medicaid funding. That’s a decision that conservatives have been hoping to reverse ever since.

Kennedy dissented from the Medicaid decision, but suggested that he was open to the idea of hospitals suing. He was “was willing to leave the courthouse doors open in Medicaid cases, whereas the conservative majority is willing to shut it – I mean, really slam it,” Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University law professor, tells Axios.

While all of these issues are likely to come up at Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, if recent history is any indication, his answers will unlikely be very helpful in predicting how he will rule.