Obamacare tax subsidies upheld by divided US Supreme Court

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court upheld the nationwide tax subsidies that are acore component of President Barack Obama’s health-care law, rejecting a challenge that had threatened to gut the measure and undercut his legacy.

The 6-3 ruling is the high court’s second in three years to preserve Obamacare in the face of Republican-backed legal attacks. It averts a collapse in state insurance markets and lets millions of Americans keep using federal tax credits designed to make policies affordable. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the court’s four Democratic appointees in the majority.

They said the 2010 Affordable Care Act allows tax credits in all 50 states, not just the 16 that have authorised their own online insurance exchanges. “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them,” Roberts wrote. The decision eliminates what was probably the most potent legal challenge to the landmark health-care law that was designed to expand coverage to at least 30 million uninsured Americans. Republican opponents now must look to winning the White House in the 2016 election if they hope to roll back the law.

A ruling against the administration might have forced more than 6 million people to drop Obamacare policies because of tripling and even quadrupling premiums.