That’s up to the US Supreme Court to decide. Twenty-five states have already claimed that it is a coercive exercise of federal power and an untenable financial burden on them. Agreeing that a constitutional issue is at stake, Obamacare will finally have its date in the US Supreme Court in March. Depending how far the court goes with its ruling, the outcome may have a lasting impact on the nation’s healthcare system, the limits of power of the federal government, as well as Obama’s chances for reelection
By Supreme Court standards this hearing will be one for the record books.
In agreeing to hear Florida v. HHS a constitutional challenge to President Obama’s controversial health reform plan the Supreme Court has allocated 5½ hours for oral arguments. Since 1970 only two Supreme Court cases have clocked even four hours of oral arguments; with the average case lasting one hour.
Known formally as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) it is President Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
Obamacare is the country’s largest healthcare overhaul since the inception of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. Its provisions scheduled to be phased in through 2018 were designed to extend health coverage to the estimated 50-million Americans who have none and to increase coverage for Americans with preexisting conditions that insurance companies currently decline to cover.
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