The Supreme Court announced Thursday that the entire Affordable Care Act is upheld. They did issue some limits on the Medicaid portion of the bill.
Mitt Romney spoke to reporters from Washington, D.C., vowing to "repeal and replace" the law. He laid out some of the provisions that he would seek to put into a replacement bill, including lowering costs for everyone and leaving the pre-existing condition clause in place.
President Obama spoke from the White House in what was billed as an "address to the nation," saying "whatever the politics, today's decision was a victory for people all over this country." He highlighted the provisions of the act that have already taken affect and the benefits they provide. He spoke about the health insurance marketplaces that the act will create, and noted that insurance companies can no longer discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court held three days of oral arguments on the multi-state lawsuit challenging the health care law. On March 26, 27 and 28 the Court Justices sat for a combined six hours to determine the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The case is officially known as Florida v. Department of Health & Human Services.
The court heard arguments on four issues related to the case: whether the court has jurisdiction over a tax law that has yet to take effect, whether the individual mandate is constitutional, whether the court can strike down only part of the law without striking down the law in its entirety, and whether the law's extension of Medicaid is constitutional.
Because the court upheld the individual mandate, they did not need to address severability.