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Court appears split on future of health law if mandate is out

Questions focus on expanded care not cited in case

Several Supreme Court justices this afternoon indicated skepticism that making states expand Medicaid coverage to more low-income individuals under President Obama’s health care law amounts to coercion, as states suing the federal government argued. In the third and final day of hearings on the fate of Obama’s signature domestic achievement, Paul Clement, the lawyer representing 26 states opposing the 2010 law, argued that the Medicaid expansion is unconstitutional because Congress ties federal funding for the program with the condition that states enroll millions of new individuals who did not previously qualify.

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