U.S. Supreme Court Expected To Deliver Health Care Ruling

The United States Supreme Court is expected to hand down its ruling on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.

Chief Justice John Roberts is set to reveal the high court’s verdict shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday.

Four major issues await resolution, the most important of which is whether the law’s centerpiece requirement that most people have health insurance or pay a penalty is constitutional.

The White House has said it’s a necessary component to fund other provisions of the bill.

“The loss of the individual mandate will create a problem for the millions of uninsured and Congress will need to act to go and find ways to provide coverage for those people,” said consumer advocate David Balto.

The justices also are weighing whether other parts or indeed the entire 2010 law should fall if they strike down the insurance requirement.

Apart from the insurance mandate, the court also is considering the validity of the health care law’s significant expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal-state health care program for the poor.

“I believe health reform was the right thing to do,” Obama said.

One wrinkle could prevent the court from deciding the fate of the insurance requirement. A mid-19th century law prohibits challenges to taxes until they have been paid. The insurance requirement does not kick in until 2014 and people who pay the penalty won’t do so until they file their 2014 income tax forms by April 15, 2015.

The court devoted more than six hours to arguments about these issues over three days in late March. The justices met March 30 to take a vote on the case and sort out who would take the lead in writing the opinions. In a case of this magnitude, the chief justice probably is writing the majority opinion, assuming he is in the majority.

The 26 states and the small business group challenging the law seemed to have the better of the courtroom arguments in March. Conservative justices peppered Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. with hostile questions about both the insurance requirement and the Medicaid expansion.

The case began almost as soon as Obama signed the law on March 23, 2010. Even before the day was out, Florida and 12 states filed the lawsuit that ended up at the Supreme Court. Another 13 states later joined in later.