The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday may have virtually handed President Barack Obama a second term in the White House after it upheld a core provision of his landmark healthcare reform policy, the individual mandate requiring every American to purchase insurance or face a penalty.
In a legally dense, 110-page ruling, the Court said that the argument that the individual mandate should be upheld under the U.S. constitution’s commerce clause was not valid. However in a 5-4 split decision the Justices argued that the individual mandate could be allowed to stand as a tax.
Supporters and critics of the law thronging outside the Supreme Court’s premises in Washington and an entire nation holding its breath appeared to be caught off-guard by the decision itself. Sharp queries from the Justices during the early hearings in the case appeared to indicate their scepticism about the mandate.
Yet in the narrow victory for the White House the surprise swing vote came from conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who sided with the majority of liberal justices including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The dissenting Justices were Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Welcoming the verdict Mr. Obama said, “The highest Court in the land has now spoken. We will continue to implement this law... But what we won’t do... is re-fight the political battles of two years ago, or go back to the way things were.”
In supporting the mandate, the Court has in effect upheld the entirety of the Affordable Healthcare Act, a bitterly contested law on which Mr. Obama staked much of his credentials in the early years of his presidency. However the Court set some limits to the law’s proposed expansion of the Medicaid programme for the poor, allowing individual states to opt out.
Mitt Romney, Mr. Obama’s Republican rival in the November presidential elections, issued a muted statement after the verdict, where he said that the Supreme Court had ruled that “Obamacare” as it is pejoratively referred to by conservatives, is constitutional, but it was still “bad law.”
Keywords: Obama healthcare plan, Medicaid, U.S. Presidential Election
To Parackal Thomas: It is a tax because people are required to pay it, just like Medicare tax and social security tax. For a long time in U.S. history politicians tried to call social security a savings programs, but the U.S. courts ruled that if people are forced to pay it, it is a tax. So an increase in social security payments or this new medical premium is a tax increase. I live in the U.S., and I'm still in favor of it even though it is additional tax on me.
How A separate Healthcare Law can be considered as a TAX law I fail to understand- there is a clear distinction-health law payment of premium is for receiving a service and tax payment is for income received. since there is no appeal against Supreme court decision only congress can change the HEALTHCARE LAW.
US Healthcare is always on the political map or the agenda on both the democrat and the republican parties here in the USA, especially the democrat party presidential contenders have been battling for a long time. Congratulations to President Mr. Obama on this major achievement!
The duty discharged by the Hon'ble judges across the globe is appreciable. Happy to hear that the US supreme court upheld the insurance measure for their citizens. It has show the care they have on the nation and their well being citizens.
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