Updated from 12:02 p.m. EDT with closing health care stock prices
NEW YORK (
) -- In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- simply known as Obamacare.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined four Democratic-appointed justices to
uphold the entirety of the health care law in a 5-4 decision.
|
The court ruled that the individual mandate survived as a tax.
The court determined that Medicaid provision of the sweeping health care legislation would leave it up to individual states to determine whether they would participate in the expansion set for 2014.
Medicaid HMOs
soared after the ruling, largely due to an expected 16 to 20 million new Americans who would be eligible to enroll in the government program in 2014:
Amerigroup
( AGP) was at $65.47, up $3.07 or 4.9%,
Molina
(MOH) - Get Report
at $23.16, up $1.84, or 8.6%, and
Centene
(CNC) - Get Report
at $30.59, up 68 cents or 2.3%.
Diversified health care companies fell on the news as the regulatory burdens set by Obamacare -- minimum medical loss ratio, exchanges and rate reviews -- would cause them trouble.
Aetna
(AET)
closed at $39.85, down $1.11, or 2.7%,
Cigna
(CI) - Get Report
was at $44.18, down $1.22, or 2.7%, and
Coventry
( CVH) at $32.46, down 77 cents, or 2.3%.
-- Written by Joe Deaux in New York.
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