Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare
Today the Supreme Court affirmed the work and vision of President Obama and the Democratic Congress which is to work towards ensuring that every person in the United States has access to affordable healthcare.
Polling indicates that a small majority of people still object to the Affordable Care Act called Obamacare. But when asked about each of the individual pieces of the Act they are overwhelmingly in favor of then. These individual parts include insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions; preventive care coverage; seniors receiving additional savings on their prescriptions; and having children stay on their parents insurance till the age of 26. The Department of Health and Human Services will now continue to slowly implement the pieces of this law which will go into effect through 2014 by which time insurance exchanges will be available in each state or from the federal government if states can’t meet the deadline, and everyone will be mandated to buy health insurance.
This mandate is what Republicans, including Mitt Romney, believed would make the bill unconstitutional. It is amazing in many ways to see that while it was ruled unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause it was Chief Justice Roberts who was the deciding vote to say the mandate is constitutional under the taxing power given to Congress.
Now the demagoguery of the right wing of the Republican Party begins and we will hear what they have to say about Chief Justice Roberts who conservatives believed was on their side. The nonsense is already beginning with Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) saying ridiculous things like it still isn’t constitutional even though the court said it is. Speaker Boehner announced he will hold a vote on July 11th in the House of Representatives to repeal the bill and which everyone knows is pure political theater because such a bill can’t pass Congress.
Mitt Romney is saying that if elected on day one he will repeal Obamacare. What he will have to do is make that argument to Independent voters who have seen Romneycare (the basis for the federal program) succeed in Massachusetts and heard Romney when he passionately spoke up for a mandate. If Romney tries now to say this is a tax then he will have to admit it was also a tax in Massachusetts which puts him in an untenable position on this issue.
The time is now to move forward with all the parts of the Affordable Care Act. Whatever Mitt Romney or the Republicans say this will remain the law of the land and it will be seen many years from now as a good thing. The trials and tribulations of putting all the parts of this Act into effect will go on and the fights over the smaller issues around how to implement this policy will continue. But in the end the American people will feel more secure because they will know that their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers will be able to get the healthcare they need.