Supreme Court Sides With Obama

[AbdiWahab252]

Allahu Akbar ! This great news for the people of America. If the court struck down the health care law, it would have resulted in scrapping America's first ever attempt to provide health care insurance for all Americans. The conservative court supported the law 5 to 4.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/28/ho ... -care-law/

[FAH1223]

Free preventative care, able to stay on hooyo/aabo's insurance till age 26, no pre-existing condition discrimination, among other benefits...

The mandate to have health insurance will be a tax, so it makes the law consitutional
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/he ... th-mandate

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the insurance mandate in President Obama’s healthcare law, a stinging defeat for conservatives who had insisted the law is unconstitutional.

The decision vindicates Obama and congressional Democrats, who maintained throughout the legal challenge that even this court, with its conservative majority, would have to break with decades of precedent to overturn the healthcare law.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion for the court in a 5-4 decision on the mandate, ruling that Congress has the authority to enforce the healthcare law’s individual mandate, which will require most U.S. taxpayers to buy insurance or pay a penalty.


Roberts said the mandate could survive as a tax.

"Nothing in the Constitution guarantees that individuals may avoid taxation by inactivity," Roberts said from the bench.

The decision allows Roberts — whose legacy will depend in large part on this case — to avoid the severe reprecussions that both sides of the case had feared. The court did not strike down the signature domestic acheivement of a sitting president, nor did it give its approval to an expansion of Congress' powers to regulate commerce.

Roberts joined liberals on the court in upholding the mandate at the heart of the underlying law.

Many of the law's supporters thought before oral arguments that Roberts might vote to uphold the mandate, but on different grounds. After the arguments, conventional wisdom held that Roberts would vote to strike the mandate and Justice Anthony Kennedy would be the swing vote in the healthcare case, fulfilling his traditional role on the court.

Kennedy, though, not only sided with the court's conservatives, he wrote the strongly worded dissenting opinion.

"The majority rewrites the statute Congress wrote" by decided the mandate is a tax, Kennedy said from the bench.

The dissenting justices said the mandate is unconstitutional and the entire law should have been struck down.

The law is "invalid in its entirety," Kennedy said.

Obama had denied that the individual mandate was a tax during Congress' deliberations on healthcare reform, and it is unlikely Congress could have passed the bill if it were deemed a tax in 2010. Yet Roberts's ruling that it could stand as a tax will now allow the law to be fully implemented.

The court did chip away at the healthcare law's Medicaid expansion without striking it down entirely. It said the federal government cannot withhold all Medicaid funding from states that choose not to take part in the expansion, but must give states a choice between participating in the expanded program or leaving it as is.

The Tea Party movement has claimed the mantle of the Constitution in rallying opposition to Obama’s policies, and must now contend with the conservative court’s endorsement of Obama’s signature domestic achievement.

Some political strategists have said a ruling in favor of the healthcare law could ultimately hurt Obama by energizing the Republican base ahead of the November elections.

“I think that a lot of people would be really pissed off, put it that way,” Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said before the court’s oral arguments, when asked whether a decision upholding the mandate would energize the right.

Following oral arguments in March, the conventional wisdom was that the mandate — and perhaps the entire healthcare law — was very much in jeopardy. Kennedy joined the court’s more reliably conservative members in aggressively questioning Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.

The lawsuit challenging the mandate was filed by 26 state attorneys general and the National Federation of Independent Business.

[Shirib]

well looks like my health insurance costs are going up

[AbdiWahab252]

well looks like my health insurance costs are going up

How so ? Do I sense a Republithug ?

[Shirib]

well looks like my health insurance costs are going up

How so ? Do I sense a Republithug ?

Ask my insurance company, who's increasing costs

Apparently the bill causes insurance rates to increase, or insurance companies just use it as an excuse to rape the working man

[FAH1223]

Democrats:

Republicans:

If Obama really had swag, he'd make a speech tonight thanking Romney for the healthcare idea.

Dave Rubin ‏@RubinReport
Only in America would so many overweight, diabetic people with heart disease be upset that they're gonna have healthcare. #SCOTUS #Obamacare
Dap

[Shirib]

I don't get this bill. Why is it that if u already have healthcare, your costs are going up?

[FAH1223]

I don't get this bill. Why is it that if u already have healthcare, your costs are going up?

Insurance companies can charge as much as they want cause they know everyone HAS to have healthcare. Mandatory Business = rake in more money

[quark]

Roberts voted with the liberal justices

[SultanOrder]

This is a great victory and a step forward like social security, welfare, and medicaid. Also this will be helpful for long term costs for the federal and state governments. This law will hopefully be tweaked and retweaked for the better.



Ps Suck it to the Republicans and NHG

[quark]

Ps Suck it to the Republicans and NHG

[waryaa]

I am very skeptical about Obama's plan... Let's see how it affects working people...

Does anyone know how it will affect people who don't want any insurance? Will the police pull you over and charge you with being alive with no health insurance?

[SultanOrder]

Waryaa for those who can afford insurance but opt out will be charged a tax penalty. If you can't afford it the gov will pay for it like medicare.

-edit-

Medicaid

[waryaa]

Waryaa for those who can afford insurance but opt out will be charged a tax penalty. If you can't afford it the gov will pay for it like medicare.

po, how will the gov determine if I am eligible for free healthcare? Is it based on previous year's income tax return filing? Is there a cutoff income clause or will your premium payments depend on your income - sliding income/payment ratio?

[Shirib]

waryaa,

My insurance rates are rising next year by a lot, and they're covering less, and the reason that the insurance company is stating is because of the health care bill.

I'm confused