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TERM CARE, INC. Thomas, J., dissenting
point that Ringer did not decide. The majority opinion can therefore claim no support from its asserted "consistency with the holdings of earlier cases such as Ringer." Ante, at 19. Ringer simply does not constitute a holding on the meaning of § 1395ii; or if it does, the majority has engaged in the very practice it condemns—a sub silentio overruling (of Webster v. Fall, supra).
Moreover, the majority's criticism of my approach as declaring a sub silentio overruling is just as well directed at itself, for Ringer is no less overruled by the majority's view of Michigan Academy than by my own. According to the majority, the Michigan Academy "exception" to § 1395ii applies where the aggrieved party "can obtain no review at all unless it can obtain judicial review in a § 1331 action." Ante, at 20. Consider how this test would apply to Freeman Ringer, one of the four plaintiffs in Ringer. Ringer sought to challenge the Secretary's policy proscribing reimbursement for a certain type of surgery (a Part A benefits issue), invoking general federal-question jurisdiction. He had no concrete reimbursement claim to present, for he did not possess the financial means to pay for the surgery up front and await reimbursement. Nor, apparently, could he obtain private financing for the surgery. See Ringer, 466 U. S., at 620; id., at 637, n. 24 (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part) ("Ringer would like nothing more than to give the Secretary [the] opportunity [to rule on a concrete claim for reimbursement]"); Brief for Petitioners 42-43, n. 23. It seems to me that Ringer is the paradigmatic example of a party who "can obtain no review at all unless [he] can obtain judicial review in a § 1331 action," ante, at 20, such that he plainly would qualify for the Michigan Academy exception to § 1395ii as described by the majority.
The majority purports to reaffirm Ringer in toto, but it does so only by revising that case to hold that Ringer, notwithstanding his own inability to obtain judicial review with-
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