Supreme Court's 6-3 Ruling Is a Big Victory for Obama

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In an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the US Supreme Court ruled today that tax credits for health insurance in the Affordable Care Act are legal in states with federal exchanges — not just in states which created their own exchanges. Responding to the Court's decision, President Obama declared, "Today, 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."

The President re-iterated his intention to "put politics aside" and work to convince more governors and legislatures to expand Medicaid. "We've still got states out there that, for political reasons, are not covering millions of people that they could be covering, despite the fact that the federal government's picking up the tab."

President Barack Obama celebrates the Supreme Court ruling on Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies
with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough in the Outer Oval Office. June 25, 2015
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

 

Special thanks to Paul von Zielbauer for production assistance.

Credits

Guests:

  • Dahlia Lithwick - Author; Senior legal affairs correspondent, Slate; podcast host, Amicus podcast - @@Dahlialithwick
  • Norman Ornstein - American Enterprise Institute / Atlantic - @NormOrnstein
  • Jonathan Cohn - Senior National Correspondent at Huffington Post, where he writes about health care politics and policy; author of “The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage” - @CitizenCohn

Host:

Warren Olney