Burlington, Vt. - On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Obama's healthcare reform law, for the most part. They were a few changes.
The court ruled that the "individual mandate", a controversial provision that requires people who choose not to get insurance to pay a penalty, is constitutional. That is, if it is referred to as a tax.
Basically, the court said that the Federal government cannot mandate that everyone have health insurance. However, it can tax people who choose not to.
"Everyone of us is going to be either paying a penalty, now called a tax, or having health insurance," Constitutional law professor Cheryl Hanna said.
And then, there's the issue of Medicaid funding.
The original Affordable Care Act required States to expand their Medicaid coverage. Then, if the State chose not to do that, the law would take away all of their Medicaid funding. But the Supreme Court did not agree.
"And there the court said no, that States still have the right to refuse to expand under Medicaid but would still not be at risk of losing all of their funds," Hanna said.
