Politics & Government
WEIGH IN: Supreme Court Upholds Obama Healthcare Reform's Individual Mandate
Despite the objection of twenty-six states, several individuals, and the National Federation of Independent Business, SCOTUS has upheld new laws that all individuals must purchase health insurance come 2014. We want to know where YOU stand on the issue.
The Supreme Court of the United States upheld Thursday a controversial case that's had all eyes on the court for months.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, has been seen by many as President Barack Obama's landmark legislation. Now-- despite 26 states' challenges to the Act's laws-- it's official; in part.
According to the opinion issued Thursday, SCOTUS weighed in on two of the Act's main provisions (text taken directly from opinion):
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- The individual mandate, which requires individuals to purchase a health insurance policy providing a minimum level of coverage.
- The Medicaid expansion, which gives funds to the States on the condition that they provide specified health care to all citizens whose income falls below a certain threshold.
The most controversial part of the law-- the individual mandate that all Americans must purchase health care insurance-- has been upheld, and is set to take effect in 2014.
Chief Justice John Roberts - a conservative appointed by President George W. bush - delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Part III–C, concluding that the individual mandate may be upheld as within Congress’s power under the Taxing Clause," the opinion of the court states.
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Those who do not purchase insurance on their own will face a fine, or depending on whom you ask-- a tax.
Many conservatives were outraged Thursday, with not only the fact the mandate was upheld-- but that Chief Justice John Roberts broke with the other conservative justices on the issue, siding instead with the liberal justices: Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
Those in dissent, Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, issued this statement:
"The Act before us here exceeds federal power both in mandating the purchase of health insurance and in denying nonconsenting States all Medicaid funding," they wrote.
As for the second part of the ruling, the court found some problems with the expansion of Medicad, "but even there said the expansion could proceed as long as the federal government does not threaten to withhold states' entire Medicaid allotment if they don't take part in the law's extension," according to the Associated Press.
