AUSTIN -- One hundred and ninety-three pages summed up in a nutshell -- the law stands.
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act under the Congress' powers of taxation was cheered as a vindication for the health care law's supporters.
"I think it's a really great victory for Texas families, for small businesses throughout Central Texas that have not been able to get affordable insurance," Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) told KVUE.
Opponents of the president's signature bill were quick to voice frustration.
"This was a mixed bag, and clearly the Supreme Court did not make what I call a popular decision," said U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas).
"It clearly has shifted the debate back to the politics of this nation," said Rep. John Carter (R-Round Rock).
"What they did was to say it's constitutional to consider this health care bill a tax, but that doesn't mean it's good policy, and quite frankly, the American people don't like it," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Austin).
Texas has been one of the key players in the Republican fight against the health care bill from the very beginning, with the bill's legal opposition led in part by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
According to the court's ruling, Abbott says the state now has the flexibility to determine for itself whether to expand Medicaid and can still decide whether to participate in the insurance exchange.
"The effort to dismantle 'Obamacare' is not over today," Abbott said. "You're going to see that the venue changed from the courthouse now to the ballot box in November, but we will continue to evaluate our legal options going forward."
In the meantime, Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives are already planning a July 11 vote to repeal the law.
"Sooner or later we're going to have to either repeal or reform this health care bill," said Rep. Smith. "A new president can do it, a new Congress can do it, the administration can do it when there is such opposition from the American people."
Texas Democrats, however, say it's time to move on.
"Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured Texans, Americans, and the greatest number of uninsured children," State Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin) told KVUE. "If they really cared about Texas, they would stop the silliness and start being for things that are good for the people."
"They have no real alternatives to offer to the Affordable Health Care Act," said Rep. Doggett. "The best they've been able to come up with is tax breaks for Tylenol. That won't do the job; we have more work to do."
It's another chapter closed in the bill's ongoing saga, and it seems clear the end still hasn't been written.
