‘Obamacare’: U.S. Supreme Court can’t rule against law with real appeal (Editorial)
Repeal and replace? Don’t even think about it. No longer, anyway. That was yesterday’s ill-fated notion from Republicans who opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Today, thanks to a third decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s been, well, replaced. A suggested slogan for President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats looking to build on the growing successes of the landmark 2010 health care legislation popularly known as “Obamacare”: First survive, then thrive!
The Supremes’ latest save came on Friday with a 7-2 ruling in a case brought by a number of Republican state attorneys general who had sought to have the whole of the law tossed out on what was effectively a technicality. The facts, in brief: The law, as written, contained a mandate requiring that most people either have health insurance or pay a penalty. Back in 2012, when Obamacare survived its first challenge before the Supreme Court, it did so because Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that the penalty was effectively a tax and was therefore constitutional. But when a later Congress reduced the penalty to zero, that opened the door to an argument that the so-called individual mandate was no longer valid. And if that was so, the thinking went, the whole of the law would need to fall, because it was all of a piece.
Seven of the justices, thankfully, would have none of this. Including, it’s worth noting, the court’s newest member, Amy Coney Barrett. When the Catholic conservative Barrett was nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the vacant seat left open with the death of longtime liberal stalwart Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Democrats who opposed the selection feared that Barrett could vote to overturn Obamacare. So much for that.
If the newest justice turns out to be a center-right judge somewhat in the mold of the chief justice, all the hand-wringing over her appointment and confirmation could turn out to have been a bit overwrought. It’s too soon to rule on that definitively, of course, but the good news at the moment is undeniable: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is healthier than ever, and would seem to be in place to stay.
Biden and congressional Democrats would do well to continue to build on the successes of the increasingly popular law, touting Obamacare’s strengths as they go.
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