The United States Supreme Court will on Tuesday hear challenges to the Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – over a Republican challenge backed by the administration of President Donald Trump to invalidate the law.
President-elect Joe Biden will also address the issue of healthcare and saving the AAC in a speech expected later in the day.
Biden was Vice President when the law was enacted and worked alongside former President Barack Obama to pass the historic legislation which has come to be regarded as their greatest and signature domestic achievement.
The Supreme Court upheld earlier challenges to the law by a slim majority in 2012 and by a larger majority in 2015.
The Justices – of which there is now a 6-3 conservative majority unlike in previous instances when the law was before the court – are due to hear 80 minutes of arguments in an appeal led by Democratic states including California after a Texas district judge’s decision to invalidate the law was upheld by Court of Appeals for the fifth circuit last year.
The fate of some 35 million people’s access to healthcare hangs in the balance.
