Legal Challenges

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, championed by liberal Democrats, has been mentioned in nearly all lawsuits against the mandate.

The Archdiocese of Washington, the Michigan Catholic Conference and the Catholic University of America are among the other plaintiffs. 

Leahy said there are signs that the chief justice might rule in favor of President Obama's healthcare law.

Republicans might not offer a comprehensive plan to replace Obama's healthcare law if it is struck down.

The Supreme Court's favorability rating stands at 52 percent ahead of a politically charged ruling on the healthcare reform law.

The Obama administration might have needlessly imperiled the healthcare law's fate by failing to explain a key provision before the Supreme Court last month, The Associated Press reports.

The biggest challenge to the law has to do with the mandate that everyone have insurance. Aggressive questioning by conservatives on the court indicated their strong reservations about requiring people to have high-quality insurance, the AP reports, but that's not exactly how the law works.

"If I understand the law, the policies that you're requiring people to purchase must contain provisions for maternity and newborn care, pediatric services and substance abuse treatment," Chief Justice John Roberts said during oral arguments. "It seems to me that you cannot say that everybody is going to need substance abuse treatment or pediatric services, and yet that is part of what you require them to purchase."

The plaintiffs made the same argument. 

"A lot of the insurance that's being covered is for ordinary preventive care, ordinary office visits, and those are the kinds of things that one can predict," Paul Clement, the attorney for the 26 states suing over the law, said in court.

Health policy experts say Roberts and Clement are right, but only up to a point. 

Two of the three federal appeals judges weighing the Obama administration's cigarette warning labels seemed to side with the government, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Hospitals are scrambling on the front lines of drug shortages, The Washington Post reports.

A federal judge heard oral arguments for blocking the merger of pharmacy benefit managers Medco and Express Scripts, Bloomberg reports.

Mid-level dental therapists provide good quality, cost-effective care in countries around the world even though only two U.S. states allow them to practice basic dental services, Kaiser Health News reports.

Birth rates for U.S. teenagers have reached historic lows for all age and ethnic groups, says a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The administration will be back in court Tuesday to defend another part of the president's agenda to make Americans healthier.

In a letter, Attorney General Holder said Obama's remarks on the healthcare decision were "fully consistent" with legal principles.

The Senate minority leader hit back against the president's remarks that a decision overturning his healthcare law would be “unprecedented.”