[..] What if they strike down the individual mandate but uphold the rest of the law?
We can game this out, but first you have to understand just who would be most upset by a ruling like this. The answer is: insurance companies. You see, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires insurance companies to accept anyone who applies for coverage and to charge everyone (with some specific exceptions) roughly the same rate. This works fine if insurance companies get a random selection of customers. They can easily figure out the average cost of care for this random group and then charge everyone that average, plus a little extra so they make some money. Nice and neat.
But without a mandate, they're unlikely to get a random selection of customers. Instead, healthy folks will probably stay out of the market and buy coverage only when they come down with some kind of serious illness. This is a disaster for insurers.
of course, most americans feel that single payer is the best way to go, regardless. where a number of states are making gains. (and in spite of what happened with the democrats in california.) steve early, writing for labor notes, asks if vermont can win single payer:
The new system will take five or six years to fund and implement, however, between phasing out existing insurance arrangements, overcoming legal obstacles, dealing with provisions of the Affordable Care Act, and finding the money to pay for it all.
Meanwhile, the local business community, private insurance companies, and right-wing PACs have regrouped and counterattacked, with non-stop advertising. They’re doing their well-funded best to make sure that single payer never happens in this state or any other. They know that a lot can change, politically and in the state budget, between now and final implementation of Vermont’s health care law, particularly in a state with two-year gubernatorial terms.
single payer advocate donna smith urges people to come to philadelphia (blogged earlier here) for the Independence Day related health care rally - and whatever the supreme court justices say - right? I mean, supreme court justices have guaranteed health care - why shouldn't everyone else?
i think, thinking about health care in america - is similar to thinking about the education of our children.
it's important to keep our expectations high: everyone in, nobody out.
no matter what the scions of wall street say, we must keep demanding health care as a human right. we owe that to ourselves, our children, our children's children, our descendants.
power to the people.
no matter what the scions of wall street say, we must keep demanding health care as a human right. we owe that to ourselves, our children, our children's children, our descendants.
power to the people.
My name is Olivia. I can’t hold a sign because I’m so little.
I was born with club feet. One was so bad, it was nearly
upside-down. My feet have been stretched into place and casted into
position every week since I was 3 weeks old. It really hurts. I’m 3
and a half months old now, so I’ve done that a lot. It costs about $500
each time. (You can see one of my casts peeking out under my dress.)
On March 21, 2012 I had my first surgery, because the stretching
wasn’t working. That cost nearly $9,000, but if my feet don’t get
fixed, I’ll never be able to walk.
Medicaid is paying to fix my feet. My Daddy is a disabled veteran,
but his insurance won’t cover my feet. My Mom is trying to raise my 3
brothers and I while she wracks up student loans getting her college
degree, because minimum wage isn’t enough to keep a roof over our heads.
WIC is paying for my formula, because Mom’s milk never came in. She
feels kinda bad about that, but sometimes these things just happen.
I hear that some people want to get rid of Medicaid, the Pell Grant,
and WIC, so that the 1% can have even more tax breaks. Well, I want to
be able to walk. I need to eat. And my Mom would like to be able to
provide for me better someday. I don’t understand why people want to
take that away from me. What did I do wrong?
*photo credits: courtesy of the 99%.
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