After a tense last two weeks of the term, the Supreme Court has handed down its ruling for the cases challenging the Affordable Care Act (Florida v. Department of Health and Human Services, Dep't of Health and Human Services v. Florida, and National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius). The court voted 5-4 to uphold the entirety of the law, under a different justification than many people expected. Here's the link to the opinion (majority opinion by Chief Justice Roberts; concurrence by Justice Ginsburg, dissent by Justice Kennedy): http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-393c3a2.pdf. Please be patient if the opinion doesn't load right away--the Court's servers tend to get overwhelmed. The decision is also uploaded as an attachment on this post (on the right side of the page).
If you need a refresher on what the cases are about, here's our pre-oral argument summary, and our post-argument comments.
We're going to take our time reading the opinion, because we want to give you the our best analysis of what this means for the law, the health insurance and delivery system reforms already in progress, and the problems of unnecessary care and healthcare waste in general. We'll be back soon with our thoughts. In the meantime, follow us on Twitter (
@NewHealthDialog) for immediate reactions!
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