Supreme Court Rules in Favor of "Obamacare"

This morning, the Supreme Court upheld the controversial Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare." CNN is providing continually updated coverage of the decision. To read the latest, click here. 


Here's a brief overview of the key points in today's decision:

• The SCOTUS ruled 5-4 to uphold the individual mandate (Justices Roberts, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan and Breyer ruled in favor of upholding the law. Justices Kennedy, Alito, Thomas and Scalia were against it). Chief Justice Roberts was the swing vote.  
• They ruled that the requirement to have insurance is a tax, and therefore is constitutional (the requirement had previously been challenged under the Commerce Clause, which Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his opinion did not apply). According to Roberts’ majority opinion: “It is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without insurance. Such legislation is within Congress’ power to tax.”
• The federal government may not take Medicaid funds from the states that refuse to take part in the ACA. (This is a limited ruling – in its opinion, the SCOTUS offered the government a way to remedy this potential problem. Basically, they didn’t strike down the federal government’s right to force states to expand their share of Medicaid costs and administration, but they’re acknowledging that there’s going to be a fight.)
•   Perhaps the biggest take-away: The SCOTUS has affirmed that the President and Congress have power to regulate an important issue like health care.
•  Interestingly, the opinion notes that the SCOTUS “Does not express any opinion on the wisdom of the Affordable Care Act.”