Fate of Obamacare Law Rests With US Supreme Court Once Again
The conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dives back into politically perilous waters as it hears arguments over a Republican challenge backed by President Donald Trump’s administration aiming to…
The conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dives back into politically perilous waters as it hears arguments over a Republican challenge backed by President Donald Trump’s administration aiming to invalidate the Obamacare healthcare law.
President-elect Joe Biden has criticized Republican efforts to throw out the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as the law is formally known, in the midst of a deadly coronavirus pandemic and hopes to buttress Obamacare after taking office on Jan. 20.
The case represents the latest Republican legal attack on the 2010 law, which was the signature domestic policy achievement of Democratic former President Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice president.
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority after the Republican-led Senate last month confirmed Trump’s third appointee, Amy Coney Barrett. Most legal experts think the justices will stop short of a seismic ruling striking down Obamacare. The Supreme Court in 2012 and 2015 fended off previous Republican challenges to it.
Republican-governed states led by Texas, later backed by Trump’s administration, sued in 2018 in Texas to strike down the law. The justices are due to hear 80 minutes of arguments by teleconference in an appeal by a coalition of Democratic-led states including California and New York and the Democratic-led House of Representatives to preserve Obamacare.
If Obamacare were to be struck down, up to 20 million Americans could lose medical insurance and insurers could once again refuse to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions. Obamacare expanded public healthcare programs and created marketplaces for private insurance.