Wyden Statement on the Supreme Court Upholding the Affordable Care Act
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) issued the following statement after the United States Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act:
“The Supreme Court affirmed today that health insurance is not just for the healthy and wealthy and that denying coverage to those who need it most has no place in the United States. I think it is unfortunate that instead of looking for ways to better guarantee health care for their citizens, some states have focused only on repealing a law that would have guaranteed additional care. I authored Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act to give states who think they can do better than the federal government the ability to innovate their own state-based health solutions and even opt out of the federal individual mandate. It is my hope that moving forward we can trade litigation for innovation and come together around the idea that every American should have quality, affordable health care.”
Section 1332, better known as the Waiver for State Innovation, is a provision Wyden authored to the ACA that gives states the flexibility to implement their own approaches to providing health care coverage to their residents. Using this new waiver authority, states can waive out of the individual mandate, in addition to various other requirements mandated in the Affordable Care Act, if they can demonstrate that they have another way of meeting federal coverage requirements that do not increase the deficit.
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