US Supreme Court Again Dismissed Health Care Law Challenge

The United States Supreme Court, for the 3rd time, dismissed a challenge to the chief health insurance of the country that provides comprehensive coverage to help millions of Americans to pay their medical costs. Furthermore, in a decision of 7-2, the court rejected on Thursday a bid by eighteen Republican-led states and the former President Donald Trump government to overturn the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

It was the signature legislative achievement of former Democratic U.S. Present Barack Obama, the immediate predecessor of Trump, and it known as Obamacare in the U.S. Furthermore, the supreme court rejected challenges to the law in 2012 and 2015, with previous three decisions keeping in place such administratively famous provisions as allowing young people to remain on the insurance policies of their parents until they turn twenty-six and ensuring coverage for patients having previous health conditions.

Congress approved it initially, and the law required citizens to pay the penalty if they choose not to acquire health insurance. However, in 2017, Congress set the penalty at zero. The attorneys general of the Republican state and the Trump government struggled that removing the penalty provision made the whole law illegal. On the other hand, the court didn’t consider the legitimacy of the claims made against that law but ruled that the states opposed it didn’t have a legal position to make the challenge.

Biden vowed to Add provisions to the Affordable Care Act

Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority decision, and two or three conservative justices, such as Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, joined him. Trump appointed both of them, and his third appointee was Neil Gorsuch, who joined Justice Samuel Alito in dissent. Joe Biden, the President of the United States, announced his intentions to add provisions to the Affordable Care Act, which proved during the presidency of Obama.

The Health & Human Services Secretary Praised the Latest Supreme Court Decision

Joe Biden called the decision of the court a victory for over one hundred and thirty million American nationals with pre-existing conditions and millions of more people who were in instant danger of losing their health care in the middle of a once-in-one-century coronavirus pandemic. Xavier Becerra, the Health & Human Services Secretary, praised the Supreme Court decision, saying it was a victory for all nationals, especially people with a previous condition.

On Thursday, in a separate decision on religious rights, the supreme court ruled that the eastern city of Philadelphia was erroneous to dismiss a temporary care services agreement with Catholic Social Services, which denies working with same-sex couples because of its religious beliefs. All nine judges agreed with the consequence, but John Roberts, the Chief Justice, wrote for a majority of six injustices that Philadelphia violated the United States Constitution’s guarantee of free practice of religion in ending the agreement with the Catholic organization.

Roberts said that the organization only required an accommodation that will allow it to continue serving the Philadelphian children in a way consistent with its religious beliefs; it doesn’t aim to impose those beliefs on anyone else. Roberts wrote that Philadelphia’s refusal to an agreement with Catholic Social Services for providing foster care services if it agrees to verify same-sex couples as foster parents can’t survive strict scrutiny and violates the Constitution to the First Amendment.