Meanwhile, the ruling quickly became a rallying cry for Republicans who criticized the high court's reasoning and vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Andrea Saul, spokeswoman for GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign, said Friday night via Twitter that more than $3.2 million was raised in the hours after the decision was announced.
Beyond the election, Thursday's decision affects how Americans get medicine and health care and also provides new court guidelines on federal power.
The most anticipated Supreme Court ruling in years allows the government to continue implementing the health care law, which was passed in 2010 but doesn't take full effect until 2014. That means popular provisions that prohibit insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing medical conditions and allow parents to keep their children on family policies to the age of 26 will continue.
What the health care ruling means to you
In the ruling, the court decided the most controversial provision -- an individual mandate requiring people to have health insurance -- is valid as a tax, even though it is impermissible under the Constitution's commerce clause.
"It is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. "Such legislation is within Congress's power to tax."
He later added: "The federal government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance. ... The federal government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance."
Read the court ruling (PDF)
Roberts joined the high court's liberal wing -- Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan -- in upholding the law.
