WASHINGTON D.C. (KYTX) -- House minority leader Nancy Pelosi addressed the Supreme Court's decision to uphold most aspects of President Obama's healthcare plan, calling it a victory for everyone, and especially for the millions of people with pre-existing conditions and other complications which make it difficult to get medical insurance.
"As far as we're concerned, the victory is there for the American people," Pelosi said. "It's an end for everybody with no more lifetime limits on the coverage you receive."
Pelosi said the court's decision to term the so-called individual mandate a tax would not make it more difficult to sell the program to Americans. She said, instead, that it was merely a realization of the obvious: that people who aren't living in poverty can't expect to have others take care of their health needs.
"People who have the ability to pay and don't can't expect to be free riders," she said.
House Speaker John Boehner said the notion that people who currently have the freedom not to purchase health insurance without being penalized for it should accept the tax is baseless.
"This has to be ripped out by its roots," Boehner said. "This is government taking over the entire health insurance industry. The American people do not want to go down this path. They do not want the government telling them what kind of insurance policy they have to buy, and how much they gonna pay for it, and if you don't like it we're going to tax you. It has to be ripped out and we need to start over. One step at a time."
