Breaking News: Obamacare Prevails in 6-3 Supreme Court Ruling
WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 25, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – A major victory for the Obama administration Thursday, as the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the latest challenge to the highly-controversial Affordable Healthcare Act by a vote of 6-3.
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The ruling effectively means that health care subsidies will remain available to millions of Americans in all fifty states.
The divided court ruling affirms an earlier decision by the Internal Revenue Service that subsides should be available to not just states that have set up their own health insurance exchanges, but also to consumers living in states that rely on the federal government’s exchange program.
The high court’s interpretation focused on a challenge that Affordable Care Act tax credits were only authorized for people who buy health insurance in markets that are “established by the state.”
The basis of the decision was stated succinctly in the majority opinion penned by Chief Justice John Roberts: “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them. If at all possible we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter.”
Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined Roberts in the majority vote. Justices Antonin Scalia Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. were opposed.
Justice Scalia wrote a scathing dissent of the decision calling it “quite absurd, and the court’s 21 pages of explanation make it no less so.
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