President Obama has hailed Thursday's Supreme Court stunning decision to uphold the healthcare reform law.
“Earlier today the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act,” Obama said. “And in doing so, they reaffirmed a fundamental principle that here in the United States, the wealthiest nation on earth … that no illness should lead to any family’s financial ruin.”
Speaking from the East Room of the White House, Obama looked to sell his signature healthcare legislation ahead of the political battle to come with his GOP rival, Mitt Romney, over the law and its impact on the country.
“If you don’t have insurance, starting in 2014, this law will offer you an array of quality, affordable health insurance options,” Obama said.
The president ticked through the popular aspects of the law, including young people who can stay on their parent’s insurance, and the provision that outlaws denying coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.
Obama said “we can’t fight the political battles from two years ago,” but Houe Republicans announced they would vote on repealing the full law on July 11.
The Supreme Court had 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 the 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.
Roberts tacitly acknowledged the passionate opposition to the healthcare law, but he said policy decisions belong to the elected branches of government, not the court.
“It is not our job to save the people from the consequences of their political decisions,” he said.
The decision allows Roberts — whose legacy will depend in large part on this case — to avoid the severe repercussions that both sides of the case had feared. The court did not strike down the signature domestic achievement of a sitting president, nor did it give its approval to an expansion of Congress's powers to regulate commerce.
House Republicans, in reaction, announced they would vote on repealing the full law on July 11.
Roberts joined liberals on the court in upholding the mandate at the heart of the underlying law. Obama voted against Roberts's nomination in 2005 as an Illinois senator, but 22 Democrats backed the chief justice, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Not one Republican voted against Roberts, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush.
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.