WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court faces a momentous case Wednesday on the sweeping health insurance reform law that President Barack Obama wants to leave as part of his legacy.
The stakes are high. In this extremely politicized debate, the highest court in the land could strike down one of the pillars of so-called Obamacare, which could doom the law as a whole.
Obama's Republican foes are seeking to repeal the law both through Congress and in the courts.
The fight could be a long one.
"Don't think it's the end of the trilogy. We will be seeing ACA cases in front of the Supreme Court for decades," said Jonathan Adler of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
In June 2012, Chief Justice John Roberts, seen as conservative, helped save the law by voting alongside the four progressive justices.
Obama's foes won a battle in June 2014, when the high court ruled that employers did not have to pay for contraception for employees if this ran against their own religious convictions.
As in 2012, this time the nine justices hold in their hands the future of the law that has seen more than 10 million Americans gain health coverage.
The question before the court is whether the seven million people or more who subscribed via the government's website can obtain tax subsidies that make the coverage affordable. A ruling is expected in June.
"This time, they're addressing a narrow question of statutory interpretation, not the constitutionality of the entire act," Elizabeth Wydra of the Constitutional Accountability Center wrote in a Washington Post editorial.
"However... a ruling against the tax credits would devastate the law so completely that it would have an effect similar to a ruling striking down the law."
Comments
Comments are closed.