Greeva Garg –
The public health care system provisioned into law, the Affordable Care Act by former President Barack Obama survived a legal challenge.
The Supreme Court of the United States upheld ‘Obamacare’ and stated that it cannot be struck down as it preserves insurance coverage for millions of Americans.
The justice by a 7-2 vote made the Affordable Care Act (ACA) secure from the hard-fought political battles.
President Joe Biden said in a statement, “It is a victory for more than 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions and millions more who were in immediate danger of losing their health care in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic.”
The challenge to the ACA arose when a change was implemented in the 2017 tax bill, signed by Former President Donald Trump.
The Supreme Court dropped the penalty for violating the individual mandate – the penalty a person must pay for forgoing insurance coverage – to 0$.
Texas and other Garand Old Party (GOP) – led states, as well as the Trump Administration aimed at attacking the entire law.
Opponents of the ACA, argued that individual mandate is essential to how the law operates, changing the penalty to 0$ left it no longer valid, therefore, the entire law should be struck down as unconstitutional.
The Court held that, “the plaintiffs do not have the standing to challenge the individual mandate because they have not shown a past or future injury fairly traceable to the defendants’ conduct.”
The Court’s decision preserves benefit for millions of Americans, as ACA became an essential part of the nation’s health care system.
