Today's Health Care Ruling: In Plain English

Hopefully you are aware that there was a ruling on the Health Care decision today.. maybe you've heard people calling it "ObamaCare" but the two things are the same and basically today's ruling says:


1- The requirement to have health insurance by 2014 remains in place


2- Insurance companies must cover people with pre-existing conditions


3- Small business owners and medical groups disagree over the impacts of the law


(( This post from ScotusBlog.com should also clear up what everyone around the water cooler is most likely talking about.. aka the taxes that come with  Obamacare))


"The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn't comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding."


and


"Those subject to the individual mandate may lawfully forgo health insurance and pay higher taxes, or buy health insurance and pay lower taxes. The only thing that they may may not lawfully do is not buy health insurance and not pay the resulting tax."