A large crowd of protesters on both sides of the health care issue jammed the sidewalk outside the U.S. Supreme Court on March 27. (Kitty Felde/KPCC)
The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act in a 5-4 vote on Thursday morning, allowing the individual mandate to survive as a tax and reading the federal government's power to terminate state Medicaid funds narrowly.
The Supreme Court had been reviewing the ACA on the grounds that the legislation was unconstitutional. Arguments made against the legislation focused on two primary aspects: the individual mandate, which would require all Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty (with some exemptions), and the expansion of Medicaid.
After oral arguments concluded in March, Brietta Clark, a professor of law at Loyola Law School who specializes in health care law and access issues, said she'd be "utterly shocked" if the Medicaid expansion was struck down. She also said she believed the mandate was constitutional.
In addition to allowing the mandate to survive as a tax, the court also ruled that the Medicaid expansion was constitutional. What would be unconstitutional, though, would be for the federal government to "withhold Medicaid funds for non-compliance with the expansion provisions," according to SCOTUSblog.
A recent survey showed that no matter what the Supreme Court ruled regarding the ACA, the majority of Americans would be unhappy. South L.A. health workers have said it would be a major loss for the southside if the law, the Medicaid expansion in particular, had been overturned.
KPCC has more on the court's ACA ruling.
Check in later for more community reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling.
