The
U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the controversial health care law
championed by President Barack Obama in a landmark decision that will impact
the November election and the lives of every American.
In
a 5-4 ruling, the high court decided the individual mandate requiring people to
have health insurance is valid as a tax, even though it is impermissible under
the Constitution's commerce clause.
"In
this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as
increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go
without health insurance," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the
majority opinion. "Such legislation is within Congress's power to
tax."
That
means popular provisions that prohibit insurers from denying coverage for
pre-existing conditions and allow parents to keep their children on family
policies to the age of 26 will continue.
Roberts
joined the high court's liberal wing -- Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan -- in upholding the law. Four conservative
justices -- Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas
-- dissented.
On
the individual mandate, the opinion said that "the Affordable Care Act's
requirement that certain individual's pay a financial penalty for not obtaining
health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax."
"Because
the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to
pass upon its wisdom or fairness," Roberts wrote.
Twenty-six
states, led by Florida, went to court to say individuals cannot be forced to
have insurance, a "product" they may neither want nor need. And they
argued that if that provision is unconstitutional, the entire law must go.
