Whether echoing through the halls of Congress or bubbling up from health policy think tanks, reaction to the Supreme Court鈥檚 decision came quickly Thursday. Here鈥檚 a sample:
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important to note that Republicans that worked on this legislation, they admitted that the legislation鈥檚 drafters never planned on withholding subsidies. I think the public has had it with Republicans taking away subsidies. Enough is enough. Let鈥檚 move on.鈥� 鈥斅�Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
鈥淐lever judges can find ambiguities that others aren鈥檛 able to find. 鈥� We鈥檙e going to have to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something better.鈥� 鈥� Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to continue our efforts to put the American people back in charge of their health care, and not the federal government.鈥� 鈥� House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio
鈥淚t would be nice if we could get beyond the unfortunate commentary that has gone on for too long that, somehow, providing affordable health insurance for Americans is going to be the end of our country.鈥� 鈥� Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
鈥淔or too long, the debate over health care has placed politics over the best interests of patients. No matter the court鈥檚 ruling, it鈥檚 time for Democrats and Republicans to deliver what the president promised but ultimately failed to do.鈥� 鈥� Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.
鈥淔ull repeal probably isn鈥檛 in the cards, but the public is still not happy with large portions of the law, and you鈥檙e still going to see efforts to make changes.鈥� 鈥� Michael Tanner, senior fellow, Cato Institute
鈥淭he ACA is already deeply entrenched and will be more so in 18 months when the opportunity for legislative action will occur. You won鈥檛 see any opportunity for legislation until 2017, and at that point more than 30 million people will be receiving coverage in one way or another under the ACA. And hospitals, drug companies, device manufacturers will all have new customers under the ACA, and it will be politically risky to roll it back to any significant degree.鈥� 鈥� Henry J. Aaron, senior fellow, Brookings Institution
鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to see now a doubling down in Congress and in the states that, really, the law needs to go. This case doesn鈥檛 stop the train from derailing. It鈥檚 still going to face obstacles and another dead-end moving forward.鈥� 鈥� Nina Owcharenko, director of the Center for Health Policy at the Heritage Foundation
鈥淲ith this decision, the law has bought itself another couple years to become further entrenched and enroll more people, so that if a Republican president is ever elected, it will be much harder to undo. With each passing year, attitudes about the law will have shifted.鈥� 鈥� Topher Spiro, vice president for health policy, Center for American Progress
鈥淚 just hope that with this threat going away, and the fact that it is clear the law not going away, that we can see the other states move forward on Medicaid. As we celebrate, that鈥檚 the other thing we have to work on.鈥� 鈥� Judy Solomon, vice president for health policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities