Thousands of Michigan residents -- many without health insurance for decades or with pre-existing conditions that excluded them from coverage -- won a major victory Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court largely upheld the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health care law.
The justices, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that a controversial requirement that most Americans buy insurance by 2014 is constitutional under Congress' power to tax. That provision is the financial underpinning of the sweeping law, which aims to end inequities in health care coverage.
The Detroit Free Press reports that Gov. Rick Snyder, who has had major reservations about the law, acknowledged within hours that Michigan will have to act quickly to implement its provisions, chief among them: setting up an insurance exchange that will allow residents to compare plans and buy insurance at lower rates.
