Old Leaves: The ACA is Upheld by SCOTUS

For the last decade Americans have had much better access to good medical care than before the ACA. I hope we can soon move further toward full access for all to good health care. I support removing the profit motive from healthcare and making equal access to heath care a right for all rather than a privilege for those who can afford it.

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June 28, 2012

It is a wonderfully historic day in America.

I am proud to support a former Constitutional law professor as President of The United States,

And I am proud to support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (derisively called “Obamacare” by his political enemies). The American people support this act in almost all its parts, though a strong minority oppose it on principle amd a smaller group are confused about it and oppose the Act though they support its parts. A pretty large minority of the bill's opponents feel the bill does not go far enough!

First impression of the Results: 

• it will energize the far right- but they are already pretty well all-out enthusiastic opponents of the President.
• it will also energize the President’s supporters. He has been validated as a Constitutional expert and as a leader. He has accomplished what Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Bill Clinton failed to do. What many of us have had as a major political goal for decades has been accomplished.
• many independents and conservative Democrats will change their opinions as they see the benefits of this act and it has the increased authority of having been tested and having passed Constitutional muster in the Supreme Court.
• the only part of the Act that was found wanting was the Romney/Republican idea of an individual mandate. The Democratic more-straightforward tax idea (which Roberts found in the Act de facto) has been accepted.

My joy is overflowing.  Just imagine:

• Health insurance providers can NOT cancel your policy because you get sick. 
• Kids won’t be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions, NOW.
• Ordinary folks will be no longer be just one catastophic ilness or injury away from bankruptcy.
• Parent’s health insurance policies can cover young folks until age 26, NOW
• Grown-ups won’t be denied health insurance because to a pre-existing condition, as of 2014. 

Thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership. You took a lot of grief from your base over your compromises, but I believe you got through a great, but flawed, reform that was probably about the best bill that could have gotten a majority in the Congress. You went for "what you can get" as Edward Kennedy advised you. The reform will be refined and improved over the years.

Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, for putting, in this instance, right and law ahead of politics. I wish (barring an opportunity for another Breyer, Stevens, Souter, or Ginsberg) you had been on the Court in 2000. I wonder if things would have been different.

Gleaning Facebook: Are You Paying Attention? (The ACA)

This post about the ACA got lots of comments:

If we can share the costs of roads, we can share the costs of health care.

Are you paying attention?

This is all true:

If you're thinking that repeal of the Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamcare) doesn't affect you or maybe that it will be better to just start over from scratch, you might want to think about what you--yes, you!--have to lose.

Just a reminder that even if you are "safely" ensconced behind employer-provided insurance, the protections set forth in the ACA apply to you, too--and if those protections are repealed along with the rest (or any part) of the program, you will also be affected.

That means you may be trapped in a job, because your pre-existing condition may mean you will not qualify for new insurance offered by another employer, and the cost of private insurance would be prohibitive. If your employer shuts down, lays you off, or even changes insurers, well, you are out of luck. (The Senate GOP voted this week that they would not require an eventual ACA replacement to protect against discrimination for pre-existing conditions, which was the standard before the ACA.)

It means that you (a young adult under the age of 26) or your adult children (over 18) may find yourselves without the protection of insurance, as the Senate GOP voted the other night that an eventual ACA replacement will not be required to allow young people to remain on their parents' insurance up to the age of 26.

It means that if you have a high-risk pregnancy, or life-threatening illness such as cancer, you may not be able to afford all the care you need, because you may hit lifetime or annual caps. If you have an infant born with any kind of severe medical condition, or premature, they may hit their lifetime insurance cap before they are old enough to walk. The Senate GOP voted last night that an eventual ACA replacement program would not be required to prohibit lifetime insurance caps.

It means that if you are a struggling parent who is un- or underinsured, you will no longer be able to count on at least your kids getting the routine medical and dental care they need under the Children's Health Insurance Plan (CHIP). The Senate GOP voted that CHIP is not required to be protected by an eventual ACA replacement.

These provisions of the ACA affect everyone in this country, not just those without insurance through their employers.

If you are not okay with these changes, call your representatives and let them know what's important to you. Nothing has been set in stone yet, but our legislators have shown us a map of what they plan to do if constituents don't make their voices heard loud and clear.

If you want to share this, rather than clicking "share" (which will only make it visible to people we are both Facebook friends with), you are better off copying and pasting the text.

Andi Rouse Beyer
Sorry, we agree on a lot of things but Obamacare/ACA is not one of them.

Terrell Shaw
Sorry to hear that Andi. The ACA is far short of perfection, but it has saved many lives, provided people that I know with healthcare coverage for the first time, and slowed the increasing costs of insurance. Without the extension of Medicaid and a strong enough mandate left some folks with terrible increases, those things need to be fixed.
When it comes to healthcare I am a full-on "socialist", I s'pose, despite my entrepreneurial enthusiasm! I want full national health insurance with health-protection costs shared by We the People just like our military protection costs, police-protection costs, meat-inspection costs, environmental-protection costs, etc.

Dan Ledford
andi why are you against aca give me one good reason that you can prove yourself not just what the right has said? if it said bushcare romenycare regancare would it then be ok ? one last thing alot of folks forget thtis was originally thought up by a famous Republican a Governor of of the state of ma mitt romey and by the way its still in effect in ma to this very day so again what don't you like about the ACA aka obamacare give me a real good reason Remember the real name is affordable care act?

Sam Burnham
I wish it would mean that I could go back to the days when my deductibles weren't so high that I didn't have to pay my premiums AND ALL of my medical bills.

Paula Graves
That isn't Obama's fault. That is the insurance company.

Sam Burnham
Paula Ledbetter Graves nope. Didn't have that problem before Obamacare

Paula Graves
It doesn't matter. Obama doesn't set the prices. That is the insurance company. I've had insurance since the early 1990's and every single year my premiums have increased. Some companies offer plans with higher premiums with lower copays/deductibles or lower premiums with higher copays/deductibles. When the protections that we have from the ACA are repealed, we will all see our premiums go up. Insurance companies in the past were allowed to sell crappy plans with little coverage for an arm and a leg. The ACA did away with that because it established minimum coverages.

Sam Burnham
Oh, yes, I forgot. Nothing has ever been his fault. Even the market reactions to his failed policies. My mistake.

Paula Graves
The ACA is not perfect by any means. I do know people personally who've never had insurance or can afford to take their meds now. I believe that placing blame where it belongs and the pricing stuff isn't Obama's fault. I've never blamed a president for my health insurance rates increasing. It's the for-profit companies that are doing it.
If Trump DOES repeal the ACA and the protections it provides in relation to pre-existing conditions, I will blame him and Congress for that. The cash price for my monthly meds is about $800 and there is no way I can afford that on my own if I was to lose my insurance.
Congress and Trump are so hyped up on "repeal and replace" that they aren't using common sense. Keep the parts that are working and work on improving those that aren't.

Sam Burnham
I'd say that while we are waiting on the details of the replacement it would be reasonable to be patient. Perhaps people will actually read this bill rather than just shoving it through in the dark of night.

Paula Graves
Well that didn't exactly happen either (the dark of night bill passing). Here is the track it took to become a law. I think there were 36 roll call votes taken as well as numerous changes made due to comments from both sides of the aisle, etc. If people didn't read it from 9/17/2009 to when it was signed on 3/23/2010, then they are just making excuses. Everyone was given ample time to read and make comments.
https://www.congress.gov/.../house-bill/3590/all-actions...

Paula Graves
I'm not going to be patient and wait to see what happens. NOW is the time to scream and jump and down to make sure that we are heard. This affects all of us, like Terrell said, so complacency is not an option.

Sam Burnham
Well, I'll hold my jumping up and down for the unlikely event that they don't repeal it.

Paula Graves
It's going to be interesting few months that's for sure. LOL

Terrell Shaw
I could do with a little boredom instead.... 

Joan Ledbetter
I am currently on OC or the ACA; I have a prexisting condition and have used a lot of health insurance in the past (cancer at age 32). We need universal health care. I cannot get insurance otherwise (am an adjunct professor - do not have full-time status) and have likely reached a lifetime cap. Another fact that few people realize: Students can now attend college full-time instead of having to work full-time to get health insurance (until age 26). This helps more young people to get a degree. The ACA needs improvements but we need to keep it (and make it better).

Anne Edwards Langley
Many people think Obamacare and ACA are two different things which is really sad.

Dan Ledford
Annie you are so right by law it does not say obamacare the Republicans starty that so folks would think hey black guy create this it must be bad and alot of folks fell right in line just like the koo aid drinks they are no minds of there own just being lead around like sheep the true name is the affordable care act it never says Obamacare anywhere and you could show the folks in writing wht it say but because the right does not like it cause it does not fit with the folks who line there pockets they are against even if its good they sell there country out for money that's treason they should arrested and tried and lock up

CeCe Baker
The Talking Red Yam and his constituents, and moron voters/supporters, are going to ruin the country for EVERYONE - including themselves.

Juretha Mc Millian
Thank you for speaking for those that can not speak!

Gary Greene
I need the Donut Hole GONE from my medicare $5000 a Year for Insulin. Hopefully I can come up with $1100 (which I still don't have) I can reapply with Eli-Lilly maybe I can get help..

Jim Geist
Take what you like, leave the rest....keep the good stuff, make amendments to make it better.....the GOP is so committed to party over what is best for the people, they have become the enemy of the working people....too bad so many vote against their own self interest.

Paula Graves
I tried to have a conversation with my dad and mother in law about this. Both are on Medicare and Tricare. I asked them what are they going to do when Medicare is done away with and they have to get a policy on the market? Then because of pre-existing conditions, they can't get a policy. What if Tricare decides that they don't want to insure old people any longer? My dad is currently on chemo, on dialysis, is diabetic, and this year struggled with heart issues, so I worry about him. His response to me was "Well at least the lying b**** isn't in office!" At what point do I say, "you'll reap what you've sown?" Is it when he no longer has insurance? When he dies because he can't afford 3x week dialysis and chemo? When he's financially ruined? I'm going to keep fighting for me and my family and him as well even if he doesn't appreciate it now. How can anyone look at what's happening right now and not be scared?

Gary Greene
Trump is going to give us all health care? But no idea how but he is going to do it trust.him?

David Matheny
"Death Panels" were screamed about, starting with Sarah Palin. Yep. The Death Panels are meeting in the U.S. House and Senate right NOW.

Paula Graves
Republicans have had 6 years to come up with a replacement. Every session they complain about it and talk about replacing it. Now Trump has said he wants to repeal and replace simultaneously right after he's sworn in. It's going to be interesting to see how this pans out

Gleaning Facebook: Effective Government

 "What we don't know yet is whether my administration and this next generation of leadership is going to be able to hew to a new, more pragmatic approach that is less interested in whether we have big government or small government; they're more interested in whether we have a smart, effective government," 

 -President-elect Barack Obama, December 2008

Terrell Shaw
I believe Obama's even-tempered pragmatism is exactly what we need... I hope our nation will be patient enough to allow it to succeed in the face of a unified obstructionist Republican opposition and grumbling from the more doctrinaire on the left.

Susan Cherones
I agree that it is a dern sight better to have him at the helm, but my dreams were shattered when he installed Geithner and Summers in the henhouse. These are the very foxes who orchestrated (years ago) the policies which brought down the financial crises and to have those foxes let loose in our treasury indicated, without a doubt, that Obama is just as controlled as that other one by the true "leaders" of our country. My heart is still broken, and I can't even imagine what to do about it-my joy was so great at the prospect of change and my hopes just dashed when I realized though he is smarter and seems to be a better human being, he is either as corrupt as all the rest or is under such control by the shadow govt that he can do nothing of substance about his promises. I'll take the scraps I can get, any reversals of Bush's policies and practices are something, but Lord HELP us, how in the world can We the People ever ever ever get our country bacK??

Rhonda Ingram Bramlette
Whole heartedly agree, Mr. Shaw.

Terrell Shaw
Susan I disagree vehemently with your assessment.

Politics is the art of the possible. Those who thought that Obama is a left-wing idealogue were not listening as well as they should. It was starry-eyed liberals -- who thought Al Gore was no better than Bush -- put Bush in office with their third-party "votes of conscience". Our system is not made for sudden and radical change. Obama is steering us away from the brink and he had to have some market insiders to pull that off.

There will be no European style state health care in America anytime soon. But we can have a better, fairer, less expensive, closer to universal health system if we Democrats will not form our usual circular firing squad.

Al Gore won the election in 2000 but lost the Presidency because of Democrats. Jimmy Carter lost the Presidency in 1980 because of Democrats. Those two losses cost the United States thousands of lives, a loss of standing in the world, trillions of dollars of wealth, and the environmental cost is unlikely ever to be recovered.

To me the prospects of change under our current President are exciting but not revolutionary, and they are not something anyone should reasonably think will be obvious in 12 months.

If America cannot develop a longer attention span we are in even bigger trouble than a giant recession and two wars.