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Murphy’s Law, written by Barbara Murphy, appears monthly in The Golden Times. The column represents the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the opinion of the publisher.
Obamacare Ruling A Hallelujah Moment, But Still Work To Be Done
I never thought I’d lived to see the day when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was my hero. But I have lived to see that day. He is my hero, and should be the hero of every American because he had the guts to cast the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision declaring that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional.
An otherwise resolute conservative, Chief Justice Roberts joined with the four liberals on the Supreme Court to find that Obamacare was a legitimate exercise of Congressional lawmaking and that under its taxing power, Congress did no wrong in creating the law’s individual mandate.
The decision is unquestionably a huge victory for President Obama. But that fact and the Chief Justice’s role in creating this victory have enraged the radical right. Moments after the decision was announced, right-wing zealots were denouncing Chief Justice Roberts as a traitor to the conservative cause and they were calling for his impeachment.
On the other hand, President Obama resisted the temptation to gloat, stating he was pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision, not because it made him looked good, but because it makes health insurance available to some 50 million Americans who now don’t have it — people like Donna and Larry Smith. The Smiths were featured in Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary “Sicko,” aimed at exposing flaws in the U.S. healthcare system.
On the day the Supreme Court ruled on Obamacare, The Philadelphia Inquirer carried a story by Meeri Kim about Sicko’s fifth anniversary celebration in Philadelphia.
In Sicko, Donna and Larry Smith were sick and broke — she was recovering from cancer and he was recovering from three heart attacks — and they were buried under a mountain of medical bills. The Smiths finally filed for bankruptcy protection and moved in with their daughter. The couple had health insurance but they were pauperized by co-payments and deductibles. Five years later, the Inquirer writer noted, “they are still sick and broke.”
Obamacare is intended to help people like the Smiths obtain health insurance now that is both adequate and affordable. That’s why it’s formally called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the legality of Obamacare, the Republicans are focusing on repeal of the law. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney vows that repeal of Obamacare will be his first order of business if he is elected.
If he weren’t such an unabashed hypocrite, I’d feel sorry for Mr. Romney, who should have been standing beside President Obama hailing the Supreme Court’s decision. Obamacare was patterned after a health insurance system instituted in Massachusetts while Mr. Romney was governor of that state. He once called “Romneycare” his proudest achievement. Now, to placate the ultra-conservative zealots in the Republican party, he is condemning the kind of health insurance system he once helped to create. He has sold his soul for a shot at the presidency.
(By the way, Massachusetts citizens appear to be quite happy with Romneycare, and their state now has fewer uninsured people than any state in the country.)
Republicans, however, contend their repeal efforts will succeed because polls show the majority of Americans oppose Obamacare. This is true, but it will change if the Democrats finally get off their lazy butts and launch an effective campaign to inform the American people
what the new health insurance law really does.
Republican voters say they loathe Obamacare because it is big government run amok and a threat to American liberty. But Greg Sargent, who blogs for The Washington Post, says the truth is that even Republicans like what’s actually in the law.
A Reuters-Ipsos poll taken in mid-June, he said, found that “solid majorities of Republicans favor Obamacare’s individual provisions: 80% of Republicans favor the creation of health insurance exchanges where small business and uninsured individuals could take advantage of large group pricing benefits; 57% of Republicans support providing subsidies on a sliding scale to help people who cannot afford to buy health insurance; 52% of Republicans favor allowing children to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26; 86% of Republicans favor banning insurance companies from cancelling policies because a person becomes seriously ill.” The number of independents favoring Obamacare’s individual provisions was even higher.
The Supreme Court decision to validate the new health insurance law was a glory hallelujah moment, but even so it must be recognized as merely a first step toward the creation of truly universal health coverage in America.
For instance, Obamacare does not provide a public option, allowing people to buy insurance directly from the government. And the law does little or nothing to control medical costs.
We still have a long way to go to get what the country should and must have: Medicare For All.
*
Barbara Murphy, 79, writes about controversial issues each month.
I never thought I’d lived to see the day when Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was my hero. But I have lived to see that day. He is my hero, and should be the hero of every American because he had the guts to cast the deciding vote in a 5-4 decision declaring that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional.
An otherwise resolute conservative, Chief Justice Roberts joined with the four liberals on the Supreme Court to find that Obamacare was a legitimate exercise of Congressional lawmaking and that under its taxing power, Congress did no wrong in creating the law’s individual mandate.
The decision is unquestionably a huge victory for President Obama. But that fact and the Chief Justice’s role in creating this victory have enraged the radical right. Moments after the decision was announced, right-wing zealots were denouncing Chief Justice Roberts as a traitor to the conservative cause and they were calling for his impeachment.
On the other hand, President Obama resisted the temptation to gloat, stating he was pleased with the Supreme Court’s decision, not because it made him looked good, but because it makes health insurance available to some 50 million Americans who now don’t have it — people like Donna and Larry Smith. The Smiths were featured in Michael Moore’s 2007 documentary “Sicko,” aimed at exposing flaws in the U.S. healthcare system.
On the day the Supreme Court ruled on Obamacare, The Philadelphia Inquirer carried a story by Meeri Kim about Sicko’s fifth anniversary celebration in Philadelphia.
In Sicko, Donna and Larry Smith were sick and broke — she was recovering from cancer and he was recovering from three heart attacks — and they were buried under a mountain of medical bills. The Smiths finally filed for bankruptcy protection and moved in with their daughter. The couple had health insurance but they were pauperized by co-payments and deductibles. Five years later, the Inquirer writer noted, “they are still sick and broke.”
Obamacare is intended to help people like the Smiths obtain health insurance now that is both adequate and affordable. That’s why it’s formally called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the legality of Obamacare, the Republicans are focusing on repeal of the law. Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney vows that repeal of Obamacare will be his first order of business if he is elected.
If he weren’t such an unabashed hypocrite, I’d feel sorry for Mr. Romney, who should have been standing beside President Obama hailing the Supreme Court’s decision. Obamacare was patterned after a health insurance system instituted in Massachusetts while Mr. Romney was governor of that state. He once called “Romneycare” his proudest achievement. Now, to placate the ultra-conservative zealots in the Republican party, he is condemning the kind of health insurance system he once helped to create. He has sold his soul for a shot at the presidency.
(By the way, Massachusetts citizens appear to be quite happy with Romneycare, and their state now has fewer uninsured people than any state in the country.)
Republicans, however, contend their repeal efforts will succeed because polls show the majority of Americans oppose Obamacare. This is true, but it will change if the Democrats finally get off their lazy butts and launch an effective campaign to inform the American people
what the new health insurance law really does.
Republican voters say they loathe Obamacare because it is big government run amok and a threat to American liberty. But Greg Sargent, who blogs for The Washington Post, says the truth is that even Republicans like what’s actually in the law.
A Reuters-Ipsos poll taken in mid-June, he said, found that “solid majorities of Republicans favor Obamacare’s individual provisions: 80% of Republicans favor the creation of health insurance exchanges where small business and uninsured individuals could take advantage of large group pricing benefits; 57% of Republicans support providing subsidies on a sliding scale to help people who cannot afford to buy health insurance; 52% of Republicans favor allowing children to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 26; 86% of Republicans favor banning insurance companies from cancelling policies because a person becomes seriously ill.” The number of independents favoring Obamacare’s individual provisions was even higher.
The Supreme Court decision to validate the new health insurance law was a glory hallelujah moment, but even so it must be recognized as merely a first step toward the creation of truly universal health coverage in America.
For instance, Obamacare does not provide a public option, allowing people to buy insurance directly from the government. And the law does little or nothing to control medical costs.
We still have a long way to go to get what the country should and must have: Medicare For All.
*
Barbara Murphy, 79, writes about controversial issues each month.