Politics & Government

Obama Healthcare Plan Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court

The justices also found that the so-called "individual mandate" in what's become known as Obamacare, is constitutional.

In a landmark decision, both legally and politically, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld President Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare law, including the central mandate that individuals must buy health insurance.

According to The Huffington Post, Chief Justice John Roberts broke with republicans, casting the deciding vote in a 5-4 ruling by the nation's high court. Roberts, The Huffington Post reports, found it unconstitutional to make citizens purchase healthcare, but ruled that it could tax citizens for failing to do so.

Pundits and politicians alike are already heralding the decision as a major political boon to Obama, whose supporters were concerned that an overturn of the law, or just the individual mandate, would harm the president's re-election bid this year.

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Obama's health care law, which also requires health insurers to provide coverage to children of policy holders up to 26 years old and bans insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, was challenged by several states who argued that some of its conditions, particularly the individual mandate, were unconstitutional.

Republicans also had vehemently opposed the health care law and their presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, has vowed to seek its repeal if he's elected.

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