Washington, D.C, June 28, 2012 (Al Jazeera)
Washington, D.C, June 28, 2012 (Al Jazeera)
The United States Supreme Court has upheld Barack Obama’s landmark overhaul of the country’s healthcare system, handing the president a historic victory and bolstering his chances of a close re-election this November.
The five-four decision, led by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld the mandate for individuals to buy insurance that lies at the heart of the act.
Two years after Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, an act to insure another 32 million Americans and prevent coverage from being refused on the basis of patients’ medical histories, its key tenet survived, with the court majority deciding it was a constitutional tax.
Although the US is the world’s largest economy, it is the only industrialised democracy that until now does not provide health care coverage to all its citizens.
“This completely changes the nature of health care in the United States,” said, Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington. “This was the final hurdle.”
Opponents of the act must now hope they elect a Republican president and Republican Congress, which could repeal the act, or take away its funding, before most of the provisions take effect over the coming years, Culhane said.
“This law [is] not very well understood, and a majority of Americans don’t like it,” she said.
Jonathan Cohn, an appellate lawyer at Sidney & Austin who has clerked for the court, told Al Jazeera the mechanics of the decision were unexpected.
“The president did not want to call it a tax, but nonetheless the court says it’s a tax, we’re going to uphold it,” he said
