The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) recently ruled that family owned and other closely held companies can opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s provisions for no-cost prescription contraception in most health insurance if they have religious objections. Is this a blow to Obamacare? Yes and No. The practical implications may be small but the political ramifications are large. Politico writes:
By letting some closely held employers — like family-owned businesses — opt out of the coverage if they have religious objections, the justices haven’t blown a hole in the law that unravels its ability to cover millions of Americans. They didn’t even overturn the contraception coverage rule itself. They just carved out an exemption for some employers from one benefit, one that wasn’t even spelled out when the law was passed.
But politically, that doesn’t matter.
What matters is that the Supreme Court has ruled that the Obama administration overreached on one of the most sensitive cultural controversies in modern politics. And in doing so, the justices have given the Affordable Care Act one more setback
Dissenting Supreme Court Justices agree. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg–one of the dissenting justices–stated that the majority opinion was a radical overhaul of corporate rights, one she said could apply to all corporations and to countless laws.