Supreme Court upholds key component of Obamacare
Jun 25, 2015, 8:40 AM | Updated: 8:48 am
The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold a key component to the Affordable Care Act. (file photo)
(file photo)
Another big victory was delivered for President Obama’s health care law after the Supreme Court upheld a key component of the Affordable Care Act.
“After more than 50 votes in congress to repeal or weaken this law, after a presidential election based in part on preserving or repealing this law, after multiple challenges to this law at the Supreme Court, the Affordable Care Act is here to stay,” President Barack Obama said after the Supreme Court voted 6-3, protecting a significant aspect of the health care law.
In the ruling Thursday, the justices upheld nationwide tax subsidies that help make insurance affordable for millions of Americans through the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare.
“If this had gone the other way, it really had the potential to lead to the death spiral of the Affordable Care Act,” said Dean and Professor of Law at Seattle University Annette Clark on Seattle’s Morning News.
The ruling means that the act’s health insurance subsidies can continue to flow to residents of states that are using HealthCare.gov. It is an important factor in making health insurance affordable through the act.
“People really thought this one was a coin flip,” said Andrew Siegel with the Seattle University’s School of Law. “The surprise is that six justices joined the majority opinion; that was a fairly large majority.”
Among that majority of Justice John Roberts, known for his conservative stances.
“John Roberts is an incredibly interesting justice in that he is an extremely conservative justice, but he’s also an extremely high quality lawyer, probably the best of his generation,” Siegel said. “He really bought the argument of the structure of the act and congress’ intent and he thought deeply about the court’s role and I think he wrote a pretty good opinion.”
Siegel said he thinks opposition to the Affordable Care Act will remain in the political realm, away from the courts, from now on. Religious exemptions, however, may still make it into a court room, Siegel noted.
