On Thursday, June 28, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld Obama’s health care law as constitutional in a 5 to 4 historic decision, an enormous political victory for the Congressional Democrats and President Obama. The health care law, formally known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and informally known as “Obamacare,” has been the centerpiece for the Obama administration.
Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, wrote the majority opinion and joined the four more liberal judges in a surprising move. The moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was thought to be the fifth vote for the upholding of the law, joined the three conservative judges to write a jointly written dissent which said the entire law should be struck down.
The most controversial and signature provision of the law was the individual mandate that stated that all citizens are required to buy health insurance or they would be responsible for a penalty fee of up to 2.5 percent of the citizen’s income or $700 per person, whichever amount is greater. While Republicans said that this would be a violation of individual freedom and an overreach of federal power, Justice Roberts characterized the penalty as a tax and declared it constitutional under Congress’ power to lay and collect taxes.
Democrats have originally pushed for the mandate under the commerce clause which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce and transactions, but Justice Roberts rejected that rationale.
The other significant portion of the law was the Medicaid expansion provision which would cover about 17 million Americans who make enough money to be ineligible for assistance but do not make enough to buy insurance. The law states that if states do not comply, the federal government will threaten to withhold the states’ total Medicaid allowance. The court upheld the Medicaid expansion but said that the government could not threaten to take away existing Medicaid funds from reluctant states.
The likely Republican candidate Romney promises to repeal the law as soon as he can if he is elected for president, although he actually supported an individual mandate for health care when he was governor of Massachusetts.
CNN and Fox News made serious journalistic blunders in reporting the decision, incorrectly stating that the Supreme Court had struck down the health care law as unconstitutional. In an effort to be the first to report the news, reporters from CNN and Fox News crammed to read and interpret the verbose decision, which first declared the individual mandate unconstitutional under the commerce clause before claiming it to be constitutional as a tax.
Although the majority of Americans have health insurance, there are still 50 million people who are not insured. These millions will have access to more affordable insurance once the law is fully in force in 2014.
“Whatever the politics, today’s decision was a victory for people all over this country whose lives will be more secure because of this law and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold it,” said Obama in a response to the ruling.
