|
 Obama strode into the White House Rose Garden after the ruling to
declare that the law known as Obamacare is working, helping millions
of Americans afford health insurance who otherwise would have none,
and that it is "here to stay."
Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative appointed by Republican
President George W. Bush, wrote in the 6-3 ruling that Congress
clearly intended for the tax subsidies that help millions of low-
and moderate-income people afford private health insurance to be
available in all 50 states.
The court decided that the law did not restrict the subsidies to
states that establish their own online health insurance exchanges,
as the challengers in the case contended.
"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance
markets, not to destroy them," Roberts wrote, adding nationwide
availability of the credits is required to "avoid the type of
calamitous result that Congress plainly meant to avoid."
Roberts was joined by fellow conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy
and the court's four liberal members in a ruling that may ensure
Obamacare becomes a lasting element of the nation's social programs.
 The ruling means the current system will remain in place, with
subsidies available nationwide. If the challengers had won, at least
6.4 million people in at least 34 states would have lost subsidies
worth an average of $272 per month.
It marked the second time in three years the high court ruled
against a major challenge to the law brought by conservatives. Both
rulings were written by Roberts. Unlike the 2012 case, in which the
court was split 5-4, Kennedy joined Roberts in the majority this
time.
The law was passed by Obama's fellow Democrats in Congress in 2010
over the unified opposition of Republicans, who have fought it since
its inception.
Republicans will keep attacking Obamacare in Congress and on the
2016 presidential election campaign trail to energize right-wing
voters and raise money, but little chance exists of the law being
rolled back before the end of Obama's presidency in January 2017,
political analysts said.
Obama said the law has been "woven into the fabric of America."
"After more than 50 votes in Congress to repeal or weaken this law,
after a presidential election based in part on preserving or
repealing this law, after multiple challenges to this law before the
Supreme Court, the Affordable Care Act is here to stay," Obama
added.
The question before the justices was whether a four-word phrase in
the expansive law saying subsidies are available to those buying
insurance on exchanges "established by the state" has been correctly
interpreted by the administration to allow subsidies to be available
nationwide.
The exchanges are online marketplaces that allow consumers to shop
among competing insurance plans.
Roberts wrote that although the conservative challengers' arguments
about the plain meaning of the statute were "strong,' the "context
and structure of the act compel us to depart from what would
otherwise be the most natural reading of the pertinent statutory
phrase."
SCALIA DISSENTS
After Chief Justice Roberts announced the decision from the bench,
Justice Antonin Scalia read for 11 minutes from his dissenting
opinion inside the court's white marble and crimson-draped setting.
Scalia said the statute's words were clear, that Congress wanted to
limit the credits to the state exchanges. Scalia recalled the
court's 2012 decision upholding the law, again over his dissent.
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"We really should start calling the law SCOTUScare," Scalia said.
SCOTUS is the acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States.
"This court has no free-floating power to rescue Congress from its
drafting mistakes," Scalia added.
Roberts, sitting next to him on the bench, sat stone-faced. He
smiled slightly at the SCOTUScare line, but otherwise betrayed no
emotion.
Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito joined
Scalia's dissent.
The Obama administration said 16.4 million previously uninsured
people have gained health insurance since the law was enacted. There
are currently around 26 million Americans without health insurance,
according to government figures.
"This is not about the Affordable Care Act as legislation, or
Obamacare as a political football. This is healthcare in America,"
Obama said.
Congressional Republicans vowed to continue efforts to repeal
Obamacare despite appeals from Democrats for them to stop.
The top two congressional Republicans denounced the law on Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell said it makes life
"miserable" for many people it purports to help. House of
Representatives Speaker John Boehner called it "fundamentally
broken."
The U.S. hospital industry breathed a collective sigh of relief on
Thursday and investors cheered that the growing number of paying
customers created by Obamacare would not disappear.
The ruling sparked a broad rally in shares of health insurers with
an especially heavy stampede into hospital operators, which were
seen as being at particular risk of facing steep losses had the
subsidies been struck down.
Shares of hospital chain Tenet Healthcare surged 12.2 percent to
rank as the biggest gainer for the day in the S&P 500. Four other
hospital operators' shares hit lifetime highs: Community Health
Systems, HCA Holdings, Universal Health Services and Lifepoint
Health, with gains ranging from 7.6 percent to nearly 13 percent.
Conservatives have called Obamacare a government overreach and
"socialized medicine" and launched a series of legal challenges.
The current case started as a long-shot by conservative lawyers
opposed to law. Financed by a libertarian Washington group called
the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the lawyers recruited four
people from Virginia as plaintiffs. The lead plaintiff was a
self-employed limousine driver named David King.
The plaintiffs said they were "deeply disappointed" with the ruling.
The law "unfairly restricts the health insurance choices of millions
of people, and it threatens their jobs as well," they added.
The case is King v. Burwell, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 14-114.
(Additional reporting by Joan Biskupic and Susan Cornwell in
Washington and Dan Burns in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
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