President Obama had some things to say in regards to the Supreme Court Case about the Affordable Care Act. He has made it clear that a rejection of the ACA would be an act of “judicial activism”. It is not very common for Presidents to directly make statements regarding the Supreme Court.
In March of 2012, the Supreme Court spent the better part of a week hearing arguments about different parts of the Affordable Care Act, ACA. This is the series of health reform laws created by the Obama administration. The ACA is also called “Obamacare”, originally by its critics. Recently, people who are in favor of the Affordable Care Act have also been calling it “Obamacare” too, but they use it in a positive way.
President Obama commented publicly on the Supreme Court’s deliberations about the ACA. He has expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would uphold the Affordable Care Act. At a news conference with leaders from Canada and leaders of Mexico, President Obama said:
“Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress”.
Some of the arguments that were heard by the Supreme Court were about whether or not Congress had overstepped its bounds. Some feel that Congress is overstepping its bounds by creating the individual mandate. Others feel that Congress may have gone too far by “coercing” states to expand their Medicaid programs. President Obama said that the Supreme Court would be doing an overreach of its own if it rejected the Affordable Care Act. He said:
“And I’d just remind conservative commentators that, for years, what we have heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism, or a lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law”. He continued with: “Well, this is a good example, and I’m pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step.”
The Supreme Court has not made any comments in regards to President Obama’s statements.
President Obama, who once taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, had something to say about the individual mandate. This part of the ACA requires all Americans to purchase health insurance in 2014. Those who are already covered by health insurance, and want to keep it, can. Those who cannot afford health insurance will receive a subsidy to help them buy it.
President Obama has said that the individual mandate is critical to health reform. He said:
“I think the justices should understand that in the absence of an individual mandate, you cannot have a mechanism to ensure that people with preexisting conditions can actually get health care”. He went on to say: “So there’s not only an economic element to this, and a legal element to this, but there’s a human element to this. And I hope that’s not forgotten in this political debate”.
Image by Steve Jurvetson on Flickr