POLL: U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Obama Healthcare Plan

In a landmark decision, both legally and politically, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld President Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare law, including the central mandate that individuals must buy health insurance.

Pundits and politicians alike are already heralding the decision as a major political boon to Obama, whose supporters were concerned that an overturn of the law, or just the individual mandate, would harm the president's re-election bid this year.

Obama's health care law, which also requires health insurers to provide coverage to children of policy holders up to 26 years old and bans insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, was challenged by several states who argued that some of its conditions, particularly the individual mandate, were unconstitutional.

Republicans also had vehemently opposed the health care law and their presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, has vowed to seek its repeal if he's elected.

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4) issued this statement in response to the decision, “With this decision in place, people and businesses across the country can move forward with the certainty that they will have access to affordable health insurance. Would be entrepreneurs can now start their own businesses without fearing they won’t be able to purchase insurance for their families and employees, and recent graduates can take jobs at a startup or a nonprofit that doesn’t provide insurance—because they will be able to purchase it themselves."

The Cos Cob Democrat also said, "You will not lose access to health care if you lose your job, women can’t be charged more than men for coverage, and kids with asthma and moms who survived cancer will be able to get health insurance.  We can now move forward with the Affordable Care Act’s reforms, which will lower costs, better coordinate our health care, and provide more financial stability for families and businesses that purchase health insurance."

He added, "Because of health care reform, for the first time in over a decade, we saw a decrease in the growth of health care costs. I look forward to seeing continued progress as the remainder of the new law goes into effect and we tweak the law to continue to slow the growth of health care spending.”