The constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly called Obamacare, has been front-and-center to Republican efforts to have the entire act thrown out. To this end, the GOP controlled Senate quickly confirmed three conservative justices to the bench during President Donald Trump’s time in office.
As a quick explainer, the court will hear oral arguments that will be conducted via telephone and live-streamed to the public beginning at 10 a.m. ET. The proceeding are being live-streamed on C-SPAN and on CNN.com.
There is a lot at stake for the American public awaiting the court’s decision, which won’t be handed down until June, 2021. But bear in mind that if SCOTUS does strike the law down, “more than 20 million Americans could lose the health-care coverage they have received under its provisions. The health-insurance industry, which has built itself around the law for 10 years, could be upended,” according to CNBC News.
Also at risk are provisions that allow for pre-existing conditions, as well as those that allow parents to keep their children on their health insurance plans until the age of 26, reports CNN News.
This case, perhaps the most important to be heard by SCOTUS this year, also comes at a time when the U.S. is dealing unsuccessfully with a spreading coronavirus pandemic that has sickened over 10 million people and caused the death of over 230,000 Americans since it emerged earlier this year.
The case was brought by a group of red states led by Texas and is backed by President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. California, along with other blue states is defending the law.
While Trump has gone to court to get the Obama-era law scrapped, President-elect Joe Biden – who played a key role in its passage while vice-president under Obama – centered his health-care policy during his campaign on preserving and strengthening Obamacare.
