by Jeff Reeves | June 28, 2012 10:43 am
In what many have called the most important Supreme Court ruling in decade, the high court has voted to uphold the 2010 Affordable Care Act — known to some as “Obamacare” — almost in its entirety.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion that limited the health care laws Medicaid provision but upheld the insurance mandate as a “tax.” The law will require everyone in America to have some form of health insurance, either bought on their own or provided from an employer, or pay a penalty.
The story is fresh off the presses and still developing, and we will post additional details throughout the day. But the most important question is … what do YOU think of the ruling? How do you think it will affect health care stocks, the economy and your portfolio? What do you think it means for the election in November?
Spout off below in our comment section and read what other investors have to say.
You also can leave a post on our Facebook page[1], drop me an email at editor@investorplace.com [2]or hit me up on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP[3].
If you want to read the full opinion, get the ruling here[4] on the Supreme Court’s official website (in PDF format).
If you want the plain English explanation of the court ruling, my favorite take is this roughly 200-word assessment from SCOTUSblog[5], a website sponsored by Bloomberg law:
The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn’t comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding.
Other links of note:
If you want to read the full opinion, get the ruling here[4] on the Supreme Court’s official website (in PDF format).
If you want plain English explanations of events as they unfold, I highly recommend the SCOTUSblog[5], a website sponsored by Bloomberg law.
A great quick read: Capsule comments on CNN[6] from the justices who wrote an opinion on the matter.
A great quick history via an interactive timeline of the health care legislation[7] on USAToday, from its proposal to its passage and challenge.
Funny list of morons on Facebook[8] saying they will move to Canada to avoid socialists in America and Obamacare… uh, OK. Hope you like their state-run healthcare system.
Ezra Klein and his cohorts at The Washington Post run a great policy section of the paper’s website called “Wonkblog[9].” I guarantee some great updates will be coming across the next few days there, including today’s post: What the Supreme Court decision means for insurers, hospitals and drugmakers[10].
Wondering what motivated John Roberts and what makes him tick? This exhaustive 2009 profile in The New Yorker[11] on the chief justice after he joined the court is one of the best out there — even three years later.
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