Supreme Court upholds most of Affordable Care Act

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - On Thursday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court came down with its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, possibly one of the most controversial health care reform laws in history. Here in Tippecanoe County, feelings were mixed.

"I"m glad that they upheld the policies," said Tippecanoe County resident Krista Martin. "I think that it's good that we take care of each other."

"The biggest thing for my husband and I is it's unconstitutional," said Tippecanoe County resident Nicole Thompson. "That's the whole point of freedom is if they want to not be healthy, that's their choice. That's the whole point of being in this country."

The Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to force states to expand Medicaid,  but did uphold several other parts of the Affordable Care Act.

The individual mandate requiring most American's have health insurance or pay a penalty was ruled as "constitutional. " The law forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions was also upheld, as well as allowing children to stay on their parents insurance through age 26.

Oren Gall is a graduate student at Purdue and said he was happy with that particular decision.

"I think for graduate students it would help, because I know graduate student insurance doesn't cover everything," said Gall. "Sometimes, the parents insurance package is better."

Are local hospitals happy with the Supreme Court's decision? IU Health Arnett CEO Al  Gatmaitan said the Supreme Court's ruling was no surprise to him and locally, he believes it's a positive.

"Locally, we anticipate it's a good thing that we will have more individuals covered by health insurance," said Gatmaitan. "We're preparing, regardless of how it's organized, to improve our quality, improve coordination of care regardless of how it's eventually organized."