Supreme Court to Rule Thursday on Reform Law

It looks like the Supreme Court is holding off until the bitter end to release its opinion of the ACA’s key provisions. That’s probably an intentional move, as rulings on immigration and juvenile offenders willl be taking center stage today. No doubt the SCOTUS healthcare ruling will probably warrant an entire 24-hour news cycle unto itself, to say the least.

It looks like the Supreme Court is holding off until the bitter end to release its opinion of the ACA’s key provisions. That’s probably an intentional move, as rulings on immigration and juvenile offenders willl be taking center stage today. No doubt the SCOTUS healthcare ruling will probably warrant an entire 24-hour news cycle unto itself, to say the least.

With anticipation running so high, one needs a pickaxe to cut through it. For the Obama administration, a decision cannot come soon enough. In a nutshell, to review: proponents agree that the individual mandate on insurance is necessary to make the ACA work, while detractors stress the infringement on individual liberties.

It has always been the opinion of this blog that the key mandate proviso would be upheld, but all of the pregame chatter is causing some introspection — enough at this point to predict essentially, a tossup. Twenty-seven states say that one cannot be forced to buy insurance — something that they say consumers may not want or need. The DOJ asserts that the mandate is necessary because, at some point, coverage will be needed and that individuals (as opposed to “consumers”) will need that care and should not choose when that would be.

All of this has led to four different appeals courts ruling with three different decisions, with the final arbiter of the mandate’s necessity being decided by SCOTUS. High drama indeed.