WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday the Supreme Court passed Obama’s healthcare law in a 5-4 ruling. The mandate which requires Americans to purchase healthcare insurance will not be under the commerce clause but rather will be levied as a tax.

What is probably the most anticipated Supreme Court ruling in years will allow the government to continue implementing the health care law, which doesn’t take full effect until 2014. The plan is meant to extend coverage to most of the estimated 50 million Americans currently uninsured and to reduce the amount they pay for insurance. U.S. healthcare expenditures hit about $2.6 trillion in 2010. The Affordable Care Act which was enabled in 2010 is viewed as Obama’s biggest accomplishment in his first three years of office and already seems to be a major factor for the upcoming elections this November. Republican candidate Mitt Romney is already on the defense, disagreeing with the decision made by the Supreme Court and vowing to repeal the act if he is elected.

“What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States. And that is I will act to repeal Obamacare,” said Romney. Despite Romney’s statements, Obama has nonetheless proclaimed this as a victory.

“I know the debate over this law has been divisive,” Obama said. “It should be pretty clear that I didn’t do this because it was good politics. I did it because I believe it is good for the country.”

In another part of Thursday’s decision, the high court ruled that a part of the law involving Medicaid must change.

The law calls for an expansion of eligibility for Medicaid, which involves spending by the federal government and the states, and threatens to remove existing Medicaid funding from states that don’t participate in the expansion. Thursday’s ruling said the government must remove that threat.

According to CNN, Before the Supreme Court decision on Thursday, polls showed that 37% of Americans said they would be pleased if the health care law were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

A total of 28% surveyed said they would be pleased if the Affordable Care Act were ruled constitutional, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey showed, compared with 35% who said they would be disappointed if the court came back with that outcome.

But nearly four in 10 Americans surveyed said they would have “mixed feelings” if the justices struck down the whole law. The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted June 20-24.