MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - The ruling caught many by surprise. There were predictions that the Supreme Court would find the entire plan unconstitutional. Just like every other item in Washington, reaction to the ruling depends on what political party you belong to.
You heard a lot of people say the Supreme Court ruling makes the elections more important than ever. That's a pretty big deal, considering this is a presidential election year.
But critics of the Obama health plan say Republicans need to take control of the Senate and win the House again. Democrats say they need to take control of House.
Let's not get too complicated. Legal opinions can confuse the lawyers, let alone us average folks. All you need to know is the Obama health care plan is constitutional. Confusing, but constitutional.
"It went one way and what amazed me was it went partway," noted 9th Congressional District candidate, Dr. George Flinn. "It went in between fully saying no and fully saying yes. So it went partway. I guess it made everyone unhappy, so it's a good decision probably."
Current 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) says in his opinion, it's a good day. He's giving some of that 9th District Congressional cred to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as well.
"The court would have lost tremendous respect if it had voted against this proposal, and Justice Roberts showed himself to be a superior judicial thinker," Cohen said.
It's a Republican-Democrat thing. There were all sorts of comments from Republicans in the state legislature who don't like what the Supreme Court did. Congressman Cohen says he thinks they're missing the boat.
"People want their children on their insurance plan until they're 26. Even Romney said we need to not have pre-existing conditions be a limitation on getting insurance."
It's still going to be a few years before the entire plan goes into effect. Republican candidate Mitt Romney says his first move will be to get it repealed.
GOP candidate Dr. George Flinn says he'll give Romney all the support he can, if they both get elected.
"We're about healing patients," Flinn said. "We're about saving lives and the more paperwork that gets involved, the more bureaucracy that gets involved is more of a challenge for us to save lives efficiently."
The Republicans in Tennessee are speaking out, although the ruling by the Supreme Court will have no effect on what the states are doing right now.
Many state legislators in Tennessee and across the area are fearful the plan will end up bankrupting states. Nobody is quite sure what will happen, but clearly new battle lines are already being drawn.
