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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed the Obama administration a major victory on health care, ruling 6-3 that nationwide subsidies called for in the Affordable Care Act are legal.

"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them," the court's majority said in the opinion, which was written by Chief Justice John Roberts. But they acknowledged that "petitioners' arguments about the plain meaning ... are strong."

The majority opinion cited the law's "more than a few examples of inartful drafting," but added, "the context and structure of the Act compel us to depart from what would otherwise be the most natural reading of the pertinent statutory phrase."

Roberts was joined by the court's liberal justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, as well as by Anthony Kennedy.

In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said: "We should start calling this law SCOTUScare," an apparent reference to the fact the Supreme Court has now saved the Affordable Care Act twice. Scalia called the majority's reading of the text "quite absurd, and the court's 21 pages of explanation make it no less so."

, opponents of the law contended "that the text of the law does not authorize subsidies to make mandated insurance affordable in 34 states."


At issue were six words in one section of the law. As Nina pointed out: "Those words stipulate that for people who cannot afford health coverage, subsidies are available through 'an exchange established by the state.' " She added:

The court agreed Thursday with the government's position.

a bitterly divided high court upheld the Affordable Care Act as constitutional by a 5-4 vote.
President Obama 

 on the ruling late Thursday morning, saying the Affordable Care Act "is here to stay."


Crime, Law and Justice

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Krishnadev Calamur

Author

"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them," the court's majority said in its 6-3 opinion. The subsidies are crucial to the law, President Obama's signature achievement.

Supreme Court rules Obamacare subsidies are legal

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