California Anticipates Health Care Ruling

Californians are waking up to news from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding its ruling that upholds a key component of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

As one of the law's biggest financial beneficiaries, the state stands to gain as much as $15 billion annually in federal money for health programs.

Justices issued their ruling Thursday morning, upholding the individual mandate requiring people to buy health insurance. The court said the mandate couldn?t be upheld under the commerce clause, but said it could be upheld under existing tax authority, NBC News reported.

The court may rule separately on the constitutionality of new Medicaid requirements for states. There's also the question of whether all changes must wait until 2014, when the law is fully in effect.

While the White House has said it was confident the court will uphold the law, GOP Congressional leaders vowed to repeal ?what?s left of it? after the justices announce their ruling.

California has been a model for the federal health care overhaul since the law's passage and has begun implementing parts of it already, including the beginnings of health care exchanges. The exchanges that would provide a marketplace for consumers to purchase insurance policies, starting in 2014.

The state also has banned insurers from refusing coverage for children with pre-existing illnesses and allowed young adults to stay on their parents' plans through age 26.

California passed its own state legislation to ensure those measures would be preserved even if the federal law was thrown out. There are 7.2 million uninsured California residents, according to statistics compiled by the Associated Press.

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