until they turn 26. also a ban on lifetime limits for coverage. and insurance c cannot deny coverage to children based on preexisting conditions. that rule will eventually apply everyone to. in the years ahead, we will see the creation of state insurance exchanges that will let people shop around for insurance plans. dr. there will be a ban on annual coverage limits and requirements that businesses that employ more than 50 workers offer healthcare coverage or pay a fine. then there is that individual mandate it begins in the year 2014. reaction to today s ruling came quickly and as you might imagine, it was sharply divided all along party lines. the highest court in the land has now spoken. we will continue to implement this law. and we will work together to improve on it where we can. shepard: the president says he knows people are going to spend time talking about the politics of this, who won and who lost. that s how these things tend to be viewed here in washington. but that
analyst judge andrew napolitano live outside the supreme court. you know, there may have been plenty of people who thought this law was going to live in one way or another. but i didn t hear too many predicting it would come down this way. no. shep. and i confess that i was wrong as were many of the people with whom you and i associate and discuss these things. this was a bizarre and unique combination of a conservative chief justice and the four liberals finding a way to have the law held as constitutional that even the law and even those who wrote it didn t say. who would have thought that this whole big 2700 page statute was really a tax, not a regulation of commerce. not a regulation of medicine, not a regulation of healthcare, but a tax on people? because congress power it regulate is limited. but congress power to tax is virtually unlimited. and the chief justice and the majority of this court articulated and underscored that today. shepard: you know, look back to bush v. g
this law was gone. sure. i mean the dissenters unanimously, i mean no disagreement among them. justices ask a lee a kennedy, thomas and alito said the entire statute is unconstitutional. shep, they didn t even reach this issue of whether this is a tax. they just reached the issue that this is a private human behavior that the constitution doesn t authorize the congress to regular regulate under their view of the constitution end of the story. shepard: i thought it interesting before we go here, judge, that the chief justice said this is not mine to block it s mine to make work if i can. you played a great tape of him a few minutes ago saying going to going to be umpire not throw the pitches or catch the ball. his job is to find a way to make this constitutional. even if it s a narrow way and he did.
benefit because their debt will be lowered by the benefits of this bill, shep? shepard: gerri willis from the biz live in d.c. tonight. thanks. court watchers have said for weeks that justice kennedy would be the swing vote here. everybody thought that, it seemed. but in the end it was the conservative chief justice john roberts who swung the court in the president s favor. some observers say justice roberts handed the white house a big boost in this election year. john roberts claims he pays no attention to politics. and back in 2005, at his confirmation hearing justice roberts said judges are like umpires. umpires don t make the rules. they apply them. nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire. i will remember that it s my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat. shepard: by the way, it s the second time in just days that the roberts-led court upheld this administration s position. on monday, the court tossed much of arizona s tough immigration law in a win
supporters say the law will eventually lower premiums and help all those now not covered. anybody who tells us that health reform is unaffordable is smoking something. because one the hearts of health reform is to make our system a lot more efficient and effective. and when you make it more efficient and effective, it helps to bring premiums down. some estimates say if the law it h. been tossed out, insurance rates would have gone up ivan more. one thing did go down today. most insurance companies stocks. investors are worried about the law s added costs. shep? shepard: eric shawn in new york city. in a separate ruling today the supreme court struck down a federal law ha that had made it a rhyme crime to law about receiving military honors. about this man who claimed he won the congressional medal of honor. the court fined him 5,000 bucks and sentenced him to community service under the so-called stolen valor act. in a 6 to 3 vote the justices ruled that the 2006 law, the