The following is an article authored by three attorneys from OAMES associate member law firm, Dinsmore & Shohl LLP. The contributing authors are Tom Hess, OAMES legal counsel, along with Reed Rubinstein in the firm's Washington DC office and Tyler Williams in Columbus.
Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Reform - Virtually All Americans Required to Buy Health Insurance or Face Increased Taxes
June 28, 2012
Today, by a 5-4 vote, on the strength of an opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the United States Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("ACA") signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. View the decision. The Court rejected the argument that Congress had the authority under the Commerce Clause to require individuals to purchase health insurance. However, the Chief Justice deemed the individual mandate a "tax" for constitutional purposes, and then ruled that Congress had the constitutional authority to tax people who did not buy insurance. Seven members of the Court held that Congress lacked the Constitutional authority to punish states that refused to expand Medicaid as provided by the ACA. Read More Here