By Tom Purcell
“ObamaCare is being challenged at the Supreme Court again? What now?”
“Ah, yes, you speak of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which the then-Democrat-controlled Congress passed on a party-line vote back in 2009. It’s been the subject of lots of confusion and lawsuits ever since.”
“I thought the Supreme Court ruled on ObamaCare in 2012.”
“That ruling had to do with the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. The federal mandate requires individuals to purchase health insurance — but the Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that this requirement is OK because it is really a tax.”
“Congress may be incompetent in many areas, but it sure is good at creating new taxes.”
“Well, a ruling is expected this month in the case now before the Supreme Court, which has to do with health-insurance subsidies. When the bill was written in Congress, four simple words were put in: ‘established by the state’ The idea was that subsidies would only be available to people who purchase insurance in a market exchange established by their state.”
“Why would the drafters of the bill include a term like that?”
“Some suggest it was done to force states to set up ObamaCare market exchanges or risk losing federal subsidies that help those who can’t afford ObamaCare — no small number of people — afford their premiums. But 34 states still refused to set up exchanges.”
“Which means?”
“Well, since 34 states refused to set up ObamaCare exchanges, the federal government stepped into those states and set up federal exchanges that provide ObamaCare customers with federal subsidies to help them purchase ObamaCare policies. The IRS, the federal agency tasked with enforcing ObamaCare, decided to ignore the four words, ‘established by the state,’ even though they are plain as day in the law. So various states and local governments filed suits.”
“So, what happens if the Supreme Court rules that only the state-run exchanges can receive federal subsidies?”
“It means that 34 states that run only federal exchanges will no longer receive federal subsidies. Some 6.5 million people in these states will lose their subsidies and, analysts believe, many will drop their coverage due to the high costs.”
“That sounds like a disaster in the making.”
“It could lead to a ‘death spiral’ in which healthy people, who by law can now get coverage if they ever do get ill, will simply stop paying for it. They’ll buy it if they get sick. That means the people who keep their policies are more likely to be those with current health issues. Costs could spiral out of control.”
“The politicians might take some heat for that. Do you think Republicans in Congress are willing to take that heat?”
“According to The Hill, ‘House conservatives are hinting at support for a temporary extension of Obamacare subsidies if the Supreme Court cripples the law, even as they set up a working group to develop their own plan.’ They are hoping there will be a Republican president in 2017 and they will then be able to reform or replace ObamaCare.”
“It’s a heck of a mess, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. This is why the wiser analysts in the country pleaded with our politicians not to attempt to reform one-sixth of the U.S. economy in one fell swoop. It is why we asked that our representatives read the bill before voting on it — not pass it to find out what was in it, as Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who was then House speaker, suggested.”
“What we are finding isn’t very pretty.”
“That’s right, and it’s likely to get a lot worse before it gets better. It’s amazing, the power that our plain-written words can have over an entire country.”
Yes, the PPACA pretty much proved Democrat politicians, as witnessed by Nancy Pelosi, aren’t comfortable reading the laws they burden citizens with. After all, it’s just words, like in the Constitution, and they don’t pay attention to those either.
Yes, SCOTUS ruled the fine for not enrolling in Obama care was simply a tax: AFTER the administration argued before the court that it was NOT a tax. Ridiculous.
80% of enrollees receive an average subsidy of 75% of their premiums and emergency room visits have risen dramatically. Taxpayers take it on the chin again.
If these people (poor People) are not covered by Obama Care then the rest of us will pay more for our health insurance. Those poor people will go to the ER for health care and the costs for that will be passed onto other people. That’s you. You end up paying for these poor people’s heath care and pay more because they use the ER instead of a regular family doctor. And the hospital passes the costs onto those with health insurance. The cost for the health insurance companies goes up and then they charge you more for your health insurance. You will pay much less for health insurance in the long run if we help the poor stay healthy. It’s more expensive to treat a health care problem that’s acute and in the ER than if you catch them early and have a family doctor treat the patients in a more timely manner. An ounce of preventions is worth more than a lb of cure.
I blame the states who don’t set up health care exchages. They are the trouble makers. The people in those states need to vote for better leaders or they will suffer the lack of Federal funding to help them pay for health care costs. I guess you get what you voted for. BS.
You sir are a fool. The only thing obamacare accomplished was to insure that both hospitals and insurance companies get paid. The circumstances that you cite above existed prior to obamacare when my premiums were much cheaper and my deductible was much less.
The only thing the ACA accomplished??
The uninsured rate is now at the lowest level recorded across five decades of data. The uninsured rate declined across all race and ethnicity categories.
As of January 2015, approximately 11.2 million additional Americans were covered under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program compared to the start of October 2013, when the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment began.
Since 2010, 5.7 million young adults have gained coverage.
Up to 129 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, including up to 17 million children, are no longer at risk of being denied coverage because of their health.
76 million Americans with private coverage are eligible for expanded preventive services coverage under the Affordable Care Act—including 30 million women and 18 million children.
Consumers have saved $9 billion since 2011 because the law requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 cents of every premium dollar on consumers’ health care.
The average premium for employer-provided family health coverage went up only 3 percent in 2014, as measured by the leading survey of employer premiums. That’s tied for the lowest rate increase on record since the survey began in 1999.
Prices of health care goods and services have risen at a 1.6 percent annual rate since the Affordable Care Act became law, the slowest rate of increase for any such period in nearly 50 years.
Health care prices have risen at an even slower 1.2 percent rate over the last 12 months.
Medicare spending growth per beneficiary was approximately flat in fiscal year 2014, and from 2010 to 2013, Medicare spending per beneficiary grew at a rate that was 2 percentage points less per year than rate of growth in GDP per capita.
At the time the Affordable Care Act was passed, the Medicare Trustees projected that the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund would be exhausted and unable to finance the program in 2017; most recently, largely as a result of the ACA, the Trustees projected that the Trust Fund will remain solvent until 2030, an improvement of 13 years.
Since 2010, 9.4 million seniors and people with disabilities have saved over $15 billion on prescription drugs, an average of $1,598 per beneficiary, by shrinking the Medicare prescription drug donut hole.
Reforms to improve the quality of hospital care have helped avoid an estimated 150,000 readmissions between 2012 and 2013, and prevent 50,000 patient deaths, and save approximately $12 billion in health care costs between 2010 and 2013.
From 2010 to 2013, hospital patients experienced 1.3 million fewer hospital-acquired conditions, a 17 percent decline over the three year period.
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 424 Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are providing coordinated, quality care to more than 7.8 million beneficiaries and an estimated 20 percent of Medicare reimbursements have shifted to payment models directly linking provider reimbursement to the health and well-being of their patients.
Brains
Bravo! Excellent dissertation and good points
Sad thing is, anybody with a computer search engine and about 5 minutes of spare time could have found all this. But they don’t want to. They WANT to believe. Just cross checking some of their believes and “Facts” would lead them to a whole different world view.
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