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UPDATE: Supreme Court upholds Affordable Care Act

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The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that the health care mandate is constitutional. It upheld the entire Affordable Care Act, with the exception that the federal government’s power to terminate states’ Medicaid funds is narrowly read. Justice John Roberts read the majority opinion.

American Optometric Association President Dori M. Carlson, OD, and AOA President-Elect Ronald L. Hopping, OD, released the following statement from Optometry’s Meeting in Chicago:

“Largely ending the uncertainty about the fate of the new health care reform law, AOA anticipates that federal and state-level agencies will now increase efforts to shape state-based health insurance exchanges and implement further provisions of the sweeping new law, including the AOA-backed Harkin Amendment, Stabenow Amendment and pediatric vision care essential benefit,” they said.

“As key health care reform decisions are made in the nation’s capital and in statehouses across the country in the coming weeks and months,” they continued, “AOA will continue working to advance pro-access, pro-patient solutions aimed at ensuring that doctors of optometry and their patients are treated fairly under health reform and that policymakers and others fully understand the central role that optometrists play in enhanced care delivery and improved health outcomes.”

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010. Twenty-six states have challenged the constitutionality of the law’s mandate for all U.S. citizens to purchase health insurance by 2014.

In early 2011, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi challenged the health care law on behalf of Florida and 25 other states. In August 2011, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that parts of the law are unconstitutional, and in November 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington ruled the law unconstitutional.

In November 2011, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a legal challenge to the law. In March, the court held 3 days of oral arguments surrounding the constitutionality of the health care mandate.