Louisville, KY (WDRB News) -- It was one of the most anticipated decisions from the U. S. Supreme Court in many years -- the constitutionality of the Affordable Health Care Act before the nation's highest court.
The court upheld the heart of President Obama's health care reform, ruling in favor of the individual mandate. It requires everyone to get health insurance by 2014 or face penalties.
The clear winners of Thursday's court ruling are the estimated 50 million people across the country who are currently uninsured.
"Today is a great day for Kentuckians and for consumers all over the nation," says Jodi Mitchell, the executive director of Kentucky Voices for Health, a grass roots organization working in the state to improve health care.
She adds, "Yes, we know it is controversial, but when you think about the 650,000 Kentuckians who are uninsured, what that ends up being for them is delayed care and more costly care for everyone."
The vice president for Health Affairs at the University of Louisville, David Dunn, was pleased with the court's decision. "As a physician, I am very pleased," says Dunn, "because it expands the scope of health care, it really ushers in a new era of health care in the United States."
But Dunn says today ruling does not solve all of the problems rated to health care. Dunn is concerned about the shortage of doctors and nurses.
"Without those providers," he says, "it is essentially an insurance card without a doctor or nurse behind it."
Reaction to the ruling at Humana, one of Louisville's largest employers and one of the nation's biggest health insurance companies, came from vice president Tom Noland. "The ruling is an outcome that gives greater clarity for everybody," he says.
But he cautioned that the court did not address what many see as the biggest problem involving health care reform. "The major shortfall of the law," he says, "it that it does not address the prime cause of the problem in our health care system which is costs are too high, and they are rising too fast."
Thursday the Supreme Court settled the legal argument over health care reform. But the political battle will continue especially with this year being a presidential election year.
Copyright 2012 WDRB News. All Rights Reserved.
