By Gabby Shacknai
The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide tax subsidies provided under the Affordable Care Act in a ruling that maintains health insurance for millions of Americans.
In a 6-3 ruling, the court considered wording in the 2010 law regarding the subsidies, which over 8.7 million people currently benefit from in order to afford federal health insurance, and ruled that they should be available to all Americans regardless of what state they live in.
The outcome is a major victory for Obama, who said in a statement delivered shortly after the release of the decision that his signature health care law is “here to stay.”
The president acknowledged the many challenges to the law since its inception in 2010, both from Congress and from the courts, but said the law is no longer about politics. Instead, he said, the law is about benefiting society by extending coverage to millions of Americans and making health insurance more affordable.
Obama said that while there remains work to be done to improve health care in the United States, “this law is working.”
The law faced similar scrutiny under the court in 2012, when its requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance was upheld in a 5-4 decision.
Thursday’s decision means it is all but certain that the Affordable Care Act will survive long after Obama leaves office in 2017 and increases its chance of becoming a stable part of America’s social safety net.
Warm up questions
- What is health insurance?
- What do you know about the Affordable Care Act?
- What can happen when you do not have health insurance?
Critical thinking questions
- Why are tax subsidies necessary for some Americans to have health insurance?
- What sort of reactions to the ruling do you expect the public to have?
- Why have there been so many challenges to the Affordable Care Act?
