The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Thursday that Obamacare is legal.
Specifically, they ruled that the Obamacare enrollees living in states that didn’t create health exchanges as outlined in the Affordable Care Act are eligible for tax credits. A group of conservative petitioners had challenged this on government overreach grounds.
This means about 6.5 million people who were living in such states will get to keep health coverage they signed up for through the national exchange—and young women are going to benefit most.
According to statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services, the typical Obamacare user is a woman between the ages of 18-34.
And a significant number of minorities also fell into this category.
“The whole point… is to create a federal fallback in case a State chooses not to establish its own Exchange,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “The structure of [the section under challenge] itself suggests that tax credits are not limited to State Exchanges.”
President Obama is set to deliver a statement later this morning.
Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.