Supreme Court justices hinting at survival for Obamacare

Supporters of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) demonstrate outside the US Supreme Court, Washington, USA 

Credit: EPA

The US Supreme Court has signalled that the Affordable Care Act, an Obama-era health care law which guaranteed coverage to millions, will survive a ­challenge by Republican states and the Trump administration.

Two key conservative members of the court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, hinted they were unwilling to strike down the entire law during a hearing on Tuesday, meaning the majority of the court appeared inclined to reject the Trump administration’s challenge.

Republicans had argued that a key provision of the law, the individual mandate which required people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, had been rendered unconstitutional by Congress’ decision in 2017 to remove the penalty. They argued that as this key provision of the law was unconstitutional, the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down.

However in oral arguments on Tuesday, Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh indicated that the decision to remove the financial penalty did not indicate a desire to kill the entire law.

"It’s hard for you to argue that Congress intended for the entire act to fall if the mandate were struck down, when the same Congress that lowered the penalty to zero did not even try to repeal the rest of the act," Justice Roberts said during two hours of arguments on the case.

Justice Kavanaugh echoed that, ­telling the court that the "proper ­remedy" would be to simply sever the ­individual mandate from the law.

Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed during his presidency to strike down the Affordable Care Act, which is known more commonly as Obamacare.

The court is not likely to rule on the case for months.

After the Supreme Court hearing, President-elect Joe Biden, who as Barack Obama’s vice president was instrumental in passing Obamacare, criticised the "right-wing ideologues" who pursued the "simply cruel and needlessly divisive" challenge to the law.

"This argument will determine whether (the) healthcare coverage of more than 20 million Americans who acquired it under the Affordable Care Act will be ripped away in the middle of the nation’s worst pandemic in a century," Mr Biden told reporters in Delaware.

The Democrat went on to promise to start building on the Affordable Care Act immediately after succeeding Mr Trump on January 20.