Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Care Act, Local Pols React
The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold most of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s sweeping healthcare reform, on Thursday morning, as Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberal wing to rule against striking down the landmark legislation.
The decision was immediately praised by Democratic lawmakers, who passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and criticized by Republican opponents of the law. The ruling also ups the stakes of the 2012 presidential and Congressional elections, with Republicans now focused on repeal.
“I am pleased the Supreme Court today upheld the Affordable Care Act, protecting access to health insurance and quality of coverage for millions of Americans,” Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Harrison) said in a statement released shortly after the ruling. “This decision protects the coverage of 17 million children with pre-existing conditions, 6.6 million young adults on their parents’ plans, and 86 million seniors and families receiving free preventive care. I will continue to work with my colleagues to improve the law and make health care more affordable for New Yorkers.”
Rep. Nan Hayworth, a retired ophthalmologist elected in 2010 after vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said she’d continue to fight to repeal the legislation.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision does not change the fact that the massive 2010 government health care takeover harms, rather than helps, our patients, doctors, hospitals, and other providers. It imposes nearly $2 trillion worth of bureaucracy and excessive regulation; it has caused health
insurance premiums to increase for families struggling to make ends meet; and it raises taxes at a time when we should be lowering them,” Hayworth (R-Bedford) said. “Instead, we need to put the patient, not the government, at the center of our health care.”
Rye Town Supervisor Joe Carvin, Lowey’s Republican opponent this November, said the ruling now puts the onus on Congress and the president to repeal the law after this year’s elections. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has promised to repeal the law if he is elected.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision is deeply disappointing, but it serves to highlight two critical facts: Obamacare represents the largest tax increase in U.S. history, and it must be struck down legislatively by the Congress rather than through the courts,” Carvin said in a statement. “Obamacare is unaffordable to a nation on a perilous path toward effective bankruptcy. As a member of Congress, I will work to overturn this fundamentally flawed law.”
The ruling wasn’t a complete win for Obama and Democratic lawmakers, as the court gave states more flexibility in whether to expand their Medicaid programs as the legislation had required. Still, the individual mandate, which requires nearly everyone to carry health insurance and was the most controversial part of the law, still stands.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, seen by many as a swing vote, joined conservative justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in opposing the law while Roberts, who normally sides with the conservative judges, joined liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in affirming the law.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.