NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of medical laboratory operators traded higher Thursday after the Supreme Court upheld the 2010 health care overhaul law.
In a highly anticipated decision, the court ruled the health care law is constitutional by a 5-4 majority. The vote upheld almost the entire the law, including a provision that requires most people to have health insurance or pay a fine.
President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in to law in March 2010 after a year of intense national debate. The law allows children to remain on their parents' insurance until they turn 26, bars health insurers from dropping plan members who become ill, prohibits insurers from excluding children under 19 with pre-existing health problems, requires insurers to spend certain percentages of their premium dollars on medical care, and authorizes the Food and Drug Administration to approve generic versions of biotech drugs.
Parts of the law are still being phased in. By 2014, health insurers will not be allowed to exclude coverage to people with pre-existing health problems or make them pay higher rates, and people will be allowed to buy health insurance through exchanges.
Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings rose $3.01, or 3.4 percent, to $92.38 and Quest Diagnostics Inc. gained $1.57, or 2.7 percent, to $59.22.
