WASHINGTON. - In a Thursday ruling the Supreme Court decided to uphold the individual healthcare mandate in a 5-4 vote. An unexpected vote by Justice John Roberts Jr. provided the bill with the majority it required to be upheld.
The individual mandate clause was the most controversial aspect of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The clause imposed a fine on an individual who did not have healthcare. The mandate was central to the argument of the 26 states which filed suit against it, claiming that the imposition of the federal government was unconstitutional because it infringed on State sovereignty.
The argument was seemingly valid and kept the legal and layman minds alike guessing what the outcome would be, with plenty of facts justifying both sides.
Thursday's Supreme Court ruling certainly took many by surprise. The court reasoned that the individual mandate was nothing more than a tax measure. Chief Justice John Robert in the majority statement wrote that "the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not [the court's] role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness," as reported on Reuters.
Justice Roberts explained that section 5000A under the tax-powers of the congress, allows congress to impose such a tax. The financial penalty stated under the individual mandate was seen by the five Justices as nothing more than a tax measure, and "this is sufficient to sustain it," he said to the Guardian.
Under the individual mandate clause, people who do not have health insurance will have to pay one percent of their income as a penalty to the Internal Revenue Service. The law will go into action in 2014. There are certain exceptions on grounds of religion and financial hardships.
According to the Urban Institute as reported on Yahoo News, only six percent of the people will have to buy insurance, since most Americans are already insured or covered by Medicaid.
