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u.s. news Diabierna 18 Juni 2021

'Obamacare' survives: Supreme Court dismisses big challenge

(AP) — The Supreme law should fall, too.
Court preserved insur-
ance coverage for millions And with a more conserva-
of Americans Thursday, tive Supreme Court that in-
rejecting the third major cludes three Trump appoin-
challenge to the national tees, opponents of Obam-
health care law known as acare hoped a majority of the
“Obamacare.” justices would finally kill off
the law they have been fight-
The justices, by a 7-2 vote, ing for more than a decade.
left the entire Affordable
Care Act intact in ruling that But the third major attack on
Texas, other Republican-led the law at the Supreme Court
states and two individuals ended the way the first two
had no right to bring their did, with a majority of the
lawsuit in federal court. The court rebuffing efforts to gut
Biden administration says 31 the law or get rid of it alto-
million people have health gether.
insurance because of the law.
Trump’s three appointees to
The law’s major provisions the Supreme Court — Jus- joined Thursday’s major- the law.” insurance markets, while
include protections for peo- tices Amy Coney Barrett, ity, writing, “Although this Republicans pressed their also dangling higher federal
ple with existing health con- Neil Gorsuch and Brett Ka- Court has erred twice before argument to invalidate the payments before the dozen
ditions, a range of no-cost vanaugh — split their votes. in cases involving the Afford- whole law even though states that have declined the
preventive services, expan- Kavanaugh and Barrett able Care Act, it does not err congressional efforts to rip law’s Medicaid expansion.
sion of the Medicaid program joined the majority. Gorsuch today.” out the entire law “root and About 1 million people have
that insures lower-income was in dissent, signing on to branch,” in Senate GOP signed up with HealthCare.
people and health insurance an opinion from Justice Sam- Because it dismissed the case Leader Mitch McConnell’s gov since Biden reopened
markets offering subsidized uel Alito. for the plaintiff’s lack of le- words, have failed. The clos- enrollment amid high levels
plans. gal standing — the ability to est they came was in July of COVID cases earlier this
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote sue — the court didn’t actu- 2017 when Arizona Sen. year.
“The Affordable Care Act for the court that the states ally rule on whether the in- John McCain, who died the
remains the law of the land,” and people who filed a fed- dividual mandate is uncon- following year, delivered a Most of the people with in-
President Joe Biden said, sa- eral lawsuit “have failed to stitutional now that there is dramatic thumbs-down vote surance because of the law
luting the ruling and calling show that they have standing no penalty for forgoing in- to a repeal effort by fellow have it through Medicaid ex-
for building on the health- to attack as unconstitutional surance. Lower courts had Republicans. pansion or the health insur-
care law that was enacted the Act’s minimum essential struck down the mandate, in ance markets that offer sub-
when he was vice president. coverage provision.” rulings that were wiped away Chief Justice John Roberts sidized private plans. But its
by the Supreme Court deci- said during arguments in most popular benefit is pro-
Also left in place is the law’s In dissent, Alito wrote, “To- sion. November that it seemed the tection for people with pre-
now-toothless requirement day’s decision is the third law’s foes were asking the existing medical conditions.
that people have health insur- installment in our epic Af- With the latest ruling, the court to do work best left to They cannot be turned down
ance or pay a penalty. Con- fordable Care Act trilogy, and ACA is “here to stay for the the political branches of gov- for coverage on account of
gress rendered that provision it follows the same pattern as foreseeable future,” said Lar- ernment. health problems, or charged
irrelevant in 2017 when it re- installments one and two. In ry Levitt, an executive vice a higher premium. While
duced the penalty to zero. all three episodes, with the president for the non-profit The court’s decision pre- those covered under em-
Affordable Care Act facing a Kaiser Family Foundation, serves benefits that became ployer plans already had such
The elimination of the penal- serious threat, the Court has which studies health care. part of the fabric of the na- protections, “Obamacare”
ty had become the hook that pulled off an improbable res- tion’s health care system. guaranteed them for people
Texas and other GOP-led cue.” Alito was a dissenter in “Democrats are in charge and buying individual policies.
states, as well as the Trump the two earlier cases in 2012 they have made reinvigorat- Polls show that the 2010
administration, used to attack and 2015, as well. ing and building on the ACA health care law grew in Another hugely popular ben-
the entire law. They argued a key priority,” Levitt said. popularity as it endured the efit allowed young adults
that without the mandate, a Like Alito, Justice Clarence “Republicans don’t seem to heaviest assault. In Decem- to remain on their parents’
pillar of the law when it was Thomas was in dissent in have much enthusiasm for ber 2016, just before Obama health insurance until they
passed in 2010, the rest of the the two earlier cases, but he continuing to try to overturn left office and Trump swept turn 26. Before the law, go-
in calling the ACA a “disas- ing without medical coverage
ter,” 46% of Americans had was akin to a rite of passage
an unfavorable view of the for people in their 20s getting
law, while 43% approved, ac- a start in the world.
cording to the Kaiser Fam-
ily Foundation tracking poll. Because of the ACA, most
Those ratings flipped and by privately insured women re-
February of this year 54% had ceive birth control free of
a favorable view, while disap- charge. It’s considered a pre-
proval had fallen to 39% in ventive benefit covered at no
the same ongoing poll. additional cost to the patient.
So are routine screenings for
cancer and other conditions.
The health law is now un-
dergoing an expansion un- For Medicare recipients,
der Biden, who sees it as the “Obamacare” also improved
foundation for moving the preventive care, and more
U.S. to coverage for all. His importantly, closed a pre-
giant COVID-19 relief bill scription drug coverage gap
significantly increased subsi- of several thousand dol-
dies for private health plans lars that was known as the
offered through the ACA’s “doughnut hole.”