Legal Challenges

The Supreme Court ruling on healthcare will deliver a definitive judgment on President Obama’s effectiveness as a leader.

The Supreme Court’s historic decision on President Obama’s healthcare law is just hours away. The justices will announce the fate of the healthcare law shortly after 10 a.m. — and from there, things are going to get crazy.

There are too many press briefings and conference calls to count. And if the Arizona immigration case is any indication, it’s often difficult to assign political winners and losers with a split decision, especially within the first 30 seconds after the decision is released.

The Thursday morning chaos is inevitable, but Healthwatch can at least help make sense of it. Be sure to read our handy primer on the logistics of deciphering the decision and the questions that will follow from any decision.

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The Supreme Court’s historic healthcare ruling is less than a day away, and one thing is certain: No matter what happens, it’s going to be chaos.

All eyes will be on Twitter, SCOTUSBlog and cable TV around 10 a.m. Thursday as the country waits for a decision in the legal challenge to President Obama’s healthcare law. It’s one of the biggest cases in the court’s recent history, and also one of the most complicated.

The complex bundle of legal issues, political implications and policy questions will likely turn Thursday morning into a circus of hyperbole, misinterpretation, chest-thumping and stone-throwing.

As the country waits for the historic decision, here’s a quick guide to help sort through the various stages of mayhem:

The public remains divided over President Obama's healthcare reform law and whether the Supreme Court should overturn it, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

The survey, released Tuesday evening, is consistent with a steady stream of polls showing that voters are divided almost evenly on the healthcare law and the Supreme Court case challenging it.

The court is expected to announce Thursday whether the law's individual mandate, which requires most people to buy insurance or pay a penalty, is unconstitutional — and if so, how much of the law to strike down.

House Republicans have tapped Reps. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) to lead their immediate response to the Supreme Court's healthcare decision Thursday.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) discussed the party's messaging strategy Wednesday at a closed-door caucus meeting. Republicans have been preparing for weeks to respond to the Supreme Court's decision, no matter how it comes down. The ruling is expected shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday.

Boehner told his troops that Price and McMorris Rodgers will be at the Supreme Court on Thursday to hear the decision, according to a source who was in the room during Wednesday's conference meeting.

The justices who will rule on the healthcare reform law have grappled with a variety of health issues themselves.

Lawmakers and interest groups are ready to respond as soon as the decision is released.

The majority leader said there was a "consensus" in favor of repealing the law if the justices upheld any provisions.

We at least know when the Supreme Court will hand down its historic healthcare decision: Chief Justice John Roberts announced that all remaining cases will be decided Thursday, giving the healthcare world another 72 hours to prepare.

That preparation is a massive undertaking: stakeholder groups have multiple statements ready to go, hoping to cover all the bases in a case that has myriad possible outcomes.

Lawmakers are in a stressful and unfamiliar predicament over the healthcare ruling. It’s a momentous political event, but lawmakers and strategists can’t do anything to control or even predict the outcome. All they can do is hope and wait. Be sure to read our story on the nervous anticipation leading up to the historic decision.

Process: It’s not unusual for the court to push big decisions to the last day of its term. But what, exactly, is going on with the healthcare ruling? It’s probably being proofread and printed, according to National Journal.

“Everyone is working incredibly hard and long hours to get it polished and ready for prime time," Kevin Walsh, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told the magazine.

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Several key swing states would be hit especially hard if the Supreme Court strikes down President Obama's healthcare reform law, according to new data from Avalere Health.

If the court throws out the entire law, about 22.4 million people who would have gotten access to insurance coverage will remain uninsured, Avalere said. About 15 million people who would have been eligible for Medicaid would instead remain uninsured, as would roughly 7.5 million people who would have gotten subsidies to help pay for private insurance.

Avalere also mapped how many people would remain uninsured in each state, and the biggest impacts would be felt in several key battlegrounds.

Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Michigan would each see more than 500,000 people lose access to Medicaid or subsidized private insurance.