The United States Supreme Court on Thursday saved the 2010 health care reform, known as Obamacare, by ruling against a coalition of states led by Texas that argued that parts of the law were unconstitutional.
This is the third time that the Supreme Court has come to the rescue of the most important piece of the legacy of former President Barack Obama (2009-2017), a health law that has covered more than 20 million people in the United States and that Republicans They have been trying to repeal for a decade.
Of the nine Supreme Court justices, seven ruled in favor of Obama’s law and two against.
The decision of the highest court, taken by a majority of seven of its nine judges, represents a posterior setback for former President Donald Trump, who tried by all means to suppress the law, better known as Obamacare.
President Joe Biden, who was vice president in the Obama administration, called the court’s decision “a great triumph for the American people.”
The third defense of the Affordable Care Act
The key issue in this case was the decision taken in 2017 by Congress, then controlled by the Republicans, to weaken one of the pillars of health care reform: the so-called “individual mandate” that required all Americans to buy health insurance. .
In 2017, Congress zeroed the economic fine that existed for those citizens who did not do so.
And, in reaction, a coalition of 17 conservative states asked the Supreme Court to review the legality of Obamacare again, arguing that the change that Congress had made made the law unconstitutional.
Faced with this, a coalition of 20 Democratic states led by California and New York expressed their support for Obama’s health care reform before the Supreme Court.
In addition, the government of US President Joe Biden in February urged the Supreme Court to protect Obamacare, which was a change of position with respect to the Trump Administration, which wanted to end the law.
In response to all those arguments, the Supreme Court on Thursday argued that the allegations of the conservative states about the unconstitutionality of Obamacare are not valid and ruled against them.
If the nation’s highest court had upheld their claims, more than 20 million people could have lost their health insurance, according to studies by the Urban Institute think tank.
The highest court in the United States has already ruled in favor of Obamacare in 2012 and 2015.
The Supreme Court upheld the law in 2012, ruling that economic sanctions could be considered taxes and justified government intervention.
The Arguments Against Obamacare
In court documents, Texas Attorney General Kyle D. Hawkins said the 2017 change made the mandate “impossible to fairly interpret” as a tax. So it concluded that it is unconstitutional. He argued that not only would the provisions regarding pre-existing conditions fall, but also the entire mass law.
Hawkins said the individual mandate serves as the “operational core” of the law. So without it “other important provisions transfer the benefits and burdens of health care to the entire sector without rhyme or reason.”
The Trump administration sided with Texas in large part. Although he presented a relatively new argument: the entire law should fall, but the ruling should apply only to the 18 states that presented the challenge. Texas told justices it believes the restricted appeal from the Justice Department would cause chaos.
“Invalidating the ACA (Obamacare) in a more limited geographic area would force citizens of the defendant states to heavily subsidize other states with their general tax dollars,” Hawkins said.
Several specialists considered, however, that the argument never had a legal basis, so it would be easily rejected by the Supreme Court.
And it was precisely what happened this Thursday.
“We have not decided the question of the validity of the law, but Texas and the other plaintiffs are not competent to raise it,” wrote progressive Judge Stephen Breyer on behalf of most of his colleagues.
What is Obamacare?
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, was passed in March 2010, during the Barack Obama administration.
In the United States, most health care is private, because millions of people do not count. The goal of Obamacare is to have fewer citizens without health care and thus reduce health costs. This reform provided health coverage to 31 million Americans who previously did not have it.
The main change, according to the Politico portal, is that patients with pre-existing conditions – chronically ill, people who request insurance while ill or people who have suffered from a serious illness – do not have impediments to contract medical insurance or are will impose clauses impossible to pay.
Other provisions of Obamacare allow parents to keep their children in their health insurance plans up to age 26.
In addition, the government covers healthcare for the over 65s with the Mediacare program and the poor with Medicaid, which also subsidizes private health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace.
Since 2014, it was mandatory to take out medical insurance. Failure to do so would result in fines of up to 2.5% of salary. However, with the Republican-driven reform, the fine is now zero.
Advantages and disadvantages of Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act has many arguments for it. Obamacare has enabled millions of Americans to access health insurance, primarily young adults, as health care costs have become more affordable for many people.
It also allows people with pre-existing conditions to have medical coverage, something that was very complicated before, since insurance companies denied them services.
Furthermore, policyholders are now unable to maintain a pre-established limit on the coverage they provide to their clients. Additionally, this has allowed prescription drugs to cost less. According to a press release from Mediacare and Medicaid, as of 2017, Obamacare recipients had saved $ 26.8 billion on prescriptions.
But not all are benefits. As insurers now provide a wider range of services and cover people with pre-existing conditions, insurance premiums have risen. In addition, there is also the individual mandate that we have already talked about.
Another argument against Republicans is raising various taxes to help fund Mediacaid and Mediacare.
With information from AFP and EFE
