U.S. Supreme Court to decide fate of national health care law

MILWAUKEE -- The fate of the national health care law is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court -- and the body's decision is expected Thursday morning.

In March 2010, President Barack Obama signed health care reform into law. Now the high court is set to decide the law's constitutionality -- which has been challenged by 26 states including Wisconsin.

On his first day in office, Gov. Scott Walker sent a letter to Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen authorizing him to join the lawsuit.

"It's why Wisconsin joined the lawsuit, it's clear the constitution does not define the federal government has the right to tell states and more importantly families what they can do with health care," said Gov. Walker.

It was a Wisconsin native, Cedarburg's Paul Clement, who made that argument to the nine justices on behalf of the 26 states.

Either way, if the high court upholds the health care law or strikes it down, Gov. Walker says he will not act until after the November election.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services says 526,000 state residents are uninsured. That's about 9% of Wisconsin's population.

But state Democrats say a purely Wisconsin solution is unlikely -- and would require a lot of legislative action.

We would have to do a huge patchwork of bills to make sure we maintain Wisconsin's status of providing health care to people in our state," said St. Senator Chris Larson (D).

Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this developing story.