1st Ld Writethru: U.S. Supreme Court upholds Obama health care plan

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide subsidies for President Barack Obama's health care plan, a major victory for the Obama administration.

The court ruled in a 6-3 vote that the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, did not restrict the tax subsidies to states that establish their own online healthcare exchanges. The ruling means that 8.7 million Americans are entitled to continue receiving nationwide tax subsidies to make health insurance affordable regardless of local regulations in their states.

Obama called the decision a victory for hard-working Americans.

"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance market, not to destroy them," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority decision.

The decision means the subsidies will remain not just in the 13 states that have set up their own exchanges and the three states that have state-federal hybrid exchanges, but also in the 34 states that use the exchange run by the federal government.

According to local reports, more than 10 million people in the U.S. have signed up for health insurance under the Obama health care plan. That includes the 8.7 million people who are receiving an average subsidy of 272 U.S. dollars a month to help cover their insurance costs.

Of those receiving subsidies, 6.4 million people were at risk of losing that aid because they live in states that did not set up their own health insurance exchanges.

The Affordable Care Act prevents insurers from denying coverage because of "pre-existing" health conditions. It stipulates that almost everyone in the U.S. be insured and requires of rendering financial help to consumers who would otherwise spend too much on their health insurance payments. Endite