The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), ruling by a 6-3 margin that the U.S. government has the authority to give tax credits to millions of Americans to purchase healthcare insurance.
The ruling covers federal tax credits for some 6.4 million Americans living in states with their own healthcare insurance exchanges and in the 34 states with federal plans.
"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. "If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter."
In the minority dissenting opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia chided, "We should start calling this law SCOTUScare," playing off a widely used acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States.
Opponents of ACA asserted that the federal government should not offer tax credits to people in the 34 states that do not have their own healthcare insurance exchanges.
