Court upholds individual mandate in health care law

The individual mandate survives.

The Supreme Court has upheld the heart of President BarackObama’s health care overhaul — ruling in favor of the requirementthat most Americans can be required to have health insurance, orelse pay a penalty.

The decision means the historic overhaul will continue to takeeffect over the next several years, affecting the way countlessAmericans receive and pay for their personal medical care.

The ruling also hands President Barack Obama a campaign-seasonvictory.

The court found problems with the law’s expansion of Medicaid. But even there, it said the expansion could proceed as long as thefederal government does not threaten to withhold the entireMedicaid allotment to states if they don’t take part in the extension.

The court’s four liberal justices, Stephen Bryer, Ruth BaderGinsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, joined Roberts in theoutcome.