The U.S. Supreme Court mostly upheld President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act of 2010.

By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Yesterday, the U.S.  Supreme Court mostly upheld President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act of 2010.

Florida led the legal challenge to the health care reform law and its officials provided constant vocal opposition leading up to Thursday’s court ruling.

The state has also dragged its feet throughout the past few years in implementing key parts of the law, due to its belief that the law is invalid. Officials have also turned away millions in federal health care grants during this time.

Now, however, officials will have to get to work implementing the law in a short amount of time.

The Sun Sentinel reports:

The high court ruled that the federal government can require most Americans to buy health insurance, turning down a constitutional challenge led by Florida.

The decision has special impact on Florida, where one in five residents is uninsured, the third highest rate in the nation.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has refused to accept federal grants to implement a state-run insurance exchange designed to allow consumers to compare prices and coverage to buy insurance. Now the state must scramble to set up exchanges in time to carry out an insurance exchange or Uncle Sam will step in to provide one for Floridians.

Gov. Rick Scott, who was counting on the court to reject the law, indicated he was not concerned.

Gov. Rick Scott has been a bit inconsistent leading up the court ruling. The Sentinel also reported last week that when asked what would happen if the court were to uphold the law, Scott said, “If it’s declared constitutional and doesn’t get repealed, we’ll comply with the law.”

He added: “We’ve not taken any federal money with regard to the exchange, but we’ll deal with all the issues we have to deal with when we know it will be the law of the land. The federal government could set up an exchange. They could do it on their own. But we have enough time.”

It was around that time that Scott also said that even if the court upheld the law, it was still invalid. He said he would not implement the law and anticipated Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would overturn it if elected president.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act as the law of the land, however, Scott is measuring his possible moves.

The Associated Press reported:

Florida Gov. Rick Scott is unsure how Florida will comply with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld most of the health care overhaul championed by President Barack Obama.

Scott would not say Wednesday whether the state will opt out of an expansion of the Medicaid program that was ordered under the overhaul. The Supreme Court ruling makes it clear that states will not forfeit federal Medicaid money if they refuse to authorize the expansion.

Scott, who has been a sharp opponent of the health care overhaul, also could not say whether or not the state will set up its own health care market as required under the law.

Either way, the state now has about six months to put together plans for a state health insurance exchange. By January 1, states have to prove to the federal government that they can have an open marketplace  system in place to sell and purchase health insurance by January 2014. If the state is unable to do that, the federal government, by law, is required to step in and create a system.