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Obama just took a victory lap on Obamacare
(Getty Images) President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the Rose Garden.
President Barack Obama hailed the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a key provision of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, calling it a "victory for hard-working Americans."
"After multiple challenges to this law before the Supreme Court, the Affordable Care Act is here to stay. This morning, the court held up a critical part of this law," Obama said of the decision, which provided the administration with a significant victory.
Obama repeatedly said the "law is working," calling on Republicans to work to improve a law that he said has now been "woven into the fabric of America."
"What we're not going to do is unravel what has been woven into the fabric of America," he said.
It's the second time in four terms the court has prevented the law from a major obstruction that would threaten its existence. The Affordable Care Act will again survive intact as the largest expansion of healthcare in half a century.
"The point is this is not an abstract thing anymore," Obama said. "This is not a set of political talking points. This is reality. We can see how it is working. This law is working exactly as it's supposed to. In many ways, this law is working better than we expected it to."
He added: "This is healthcare in America. And unlike Social Security or Medicare, a lot of Americans don't know what Obamacare is beyond all the political noise in Washington."
The key question in the case, King v. Burwell, centered on whether the federal government had the ability to provide subsidies to help low-income Americans buy health insurance.
The challengers in the case argued the way the law was written does not allow for subsidized insurance in states where the federal government had set up insurance exchanges. Instead, the challengers argued, insurance subsidies are allowed only in states that have set up their own exchanges. They pointed to a clause that they argued meant exchanges should be "established by the state," but members of Congress who were involved in writing the law disputed characterization. Thirty-four states currently rely on the federal marketplace.
Obama touted the law's provisions in his Rose Garden speech and called Thursday a "good day for America."
"That's when America soars. When we look out for one another. When we take care of each other. When we root for one another's success. When we strive to do better and be better than the generation that came before us and try to build something better for generations to come," Obama said.
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