The Supreme Court Rules on Healthcare
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA] is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. This law is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress. It requires those individuals who are not covered by employer or government-sponsored insurance plans to maintain minimal essential health insurance coverage or pay a penalty unless exempted for religious beliefs or financial hardship. Critics of the PPACA refer to it as "Obamacare".
The PPACA also reforms other aspects of the private health insurance industry and public health insurance programs, increases insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions, expands access to insurance to 30 million Americans and lowers projected Medicare spending.
PPACA passed the Senate on December 24, 2009, by a vote of 60–39 with all Democrats and two Independents voting in favour of it, and all but one Republican voting against it. It passed the House of Representatives on March 21, 2010, by a vote of 219–212, with 34 Democrats and all 178 Republicans voting against the bill.
Twenty-six state governments, and numerous other organizations and individuals, commenced legal actions in federal court challenging the constitutionality of some or all of the elements of PPACA. Yesterday, on June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States, upheld the majority of the law, ruling the mandate was a tax and therefore fell under Congress' taxing authority. The court, however, prevented the federal government from withholding all Medicaid funds to states that fail to comply with the expansion of Medicaid. It permitted the federal government only to withhold new Medicaid funding from noncompliant states.
The vote in the Supreme Court was 5–4 to uphold the law. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opion. He wrote:
"The Affordable Care Act's requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax. Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness."
The dissenting opinion, written jointly by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito, stated:
"The Court today decides to save a statute Congress did not write. It rules that what the statute declares to be a requirement with a penalty is instead an option subject to a tax. And it changes the intentionally coercive sanction of a total cut-off of Medicaid funds to a supposedly noncoercive cut-off of only the incremental funds that the Act makes available."
Following is a video of President Obama's remarks following the news of the Supreme Court decision:
The PPACA also reforms other aspects of the private health insurance industry and public health insurance programs, increases insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions, expands access to insurance to 30 million Americans and lowers projected Medicare spending.
PPACA passed the Senate on December 24, 2009, by a vote of 60–39 with all Democrats and two Independents voting in favour of it, and all but one Republican voting against it. It passed the House of Representatives on March 21, 2010, by a vote of 219–212, with 34 Democrats and all 178 Republicans voting against the bill.
Twenty-six state governments, and numerous other organizations and individuals, commenced legal actions in federal court challenging the constitutionality of some or all of the elements of PPACA. Yesterday, on June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States, upheld the majority of the law, ruling the mandate was a tax and therefore fell under Congress' taxing authority. The court, however, prevented the federal government from withholding all Medicaid funds to states that fail to comply with the expansion of Medicaid. It permitted the federal government only to withhold new Medicaid funding from noncompliant states.
The vote in the Supreme Court was 5–4 to uphold the law. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opion. He wrote:
"The Affordable Care Act's requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax. Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness."
The dissenting opinion, written jointly by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito, stated:
"The Court today decides to save a statute Congress did not write. It rules that what the statute declares to be a requirement with a penalty is instead an option subject to a tax. And it changes the intentionally coercive sanction of a total cut-off of Medicaid funds to a supposedly noncoercive cut-off of only the incremental funds that the Act makes available."
Following is a video of President Obama's remarks following the news of the Supreme Court decision: