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What Did The Supreme Court Do?Submitted by WhitesCreek on June 28, 2012 - 4:27pm.
From TN Citizen Action: JUSTICE FOR CONSUMERS FTW!!!* The Affordable Care Act already benefits more than 100 million people including thousands of seniors, small businesses, women and children in Tennessee. Today’s announcement signals an end to constitutional debates and finally allows us all to move forward so Tennesseans can get the quality, affordable health care we need. The decision also means relief and peace of mind for the people of Tennessee who were already benefitting under the law and are now protected from the worst abuses of the insurance companies. There is no doubt that he Affordable Care Act brings unprecedented transparency and oversight to the insurance industry. Insurance companies can no longer deny care due to pre-existing conditions. As of April 2012, 1,191 previously uninsured residents of Tennessee who were locked out of the coverage system because of a pre-existing condition are now insured through a new Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan that was created under the new health reform law. [ Healthcare.gov] Insurance companies can no longer jack up our rates whenever they please. Small businesses and families will no longer pay higher rates for health insurance than big corporations. In every State and for the first time under Federal law, insurance companies are required to publicly justify their actions if they want to raise rates by 10 percent or more. Tennessee has received $5 million under the new law to help fight unreasonable premium increases. [ Healthcare.gov)] Insurance companies can no longer place place lifetime and annual caps on coverage that could once again limit care (the real “death panels”)and drive families into bankruptcy court and kill their access to t he American Dream (home ownership, college, etc.). The law bans insurance companies from imposing lifetime dollar limits on health benefits – freeing cancer patients and individuals suffering from other chronic diseases from having to worry about going without treatment because of their lifetime limits....The law also restricts the use of annual limits and bans them completely in 2014. ( Healthcare.gov) The law protects working people and their families. As of December 2011, 59,000 young adults in Tennessee gained insurance coverage as a result of the health care law. Most important, the law protects working families from losing everything they worked so hard for because they are trapped in a cycle of medical debt or bankruptcy. Tennessee Citizen Action's priority is, and will always be, to ensure that the Affordable Care Act, which includes these very important consumer protection provisions and more, stays intact for the people of Tennessee. We are grateful for today's ruling.
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I am not voicing an opinion on whether I agree with the decision or not, but I believe Chief Justice Roberts purposely ruled the way he did to vamp up the political fight. I was in favor of Medicare for all. His ruling that the law was unconstitutional under the Commerce Department was the right ruling. However, he ruled that Congress has the right to tax the people. The GOP was hoping for a different decision. However, now they can now keep telling the voter that President Obama's health care plan is a new tax on the poorest Americans.
Let's face it. In the past few weeks, President Obama has gained momentum with his gay marriage decision, and with his Executive Order on undocumented aliens. So now the fight will be about the Democrats' new "tax" on America at a time when the economy is still on the down side. I cannot wait to see all the new commercials that will spin from both sides now.
Chief justice Roberts is a George Bush Republican. President Obama voted against his confirmation when the President was in the Senate. Anyone with any knowledge of the political arena should know that Roberts would never give the President what he wanted, exactly how he wanted it. It is a sad day when the Supreme Court decides to play politics AGAIN. Some will applaud the ruling. Others will demonize it. The political "experts" will spin it. And we get to hear how wonderful, and how terrible it is for the country until November.
Just like the Congress played politics with the Eric Holder contempt vote. Justice Roberts used his ruling to try and help a flailing Republican candidate, hoping that minds will change as the days go by. Yes, this will be commercialized as a new tax; over and over again. And while the battle rages, nothing will be done before the election. Do you actually think anyone in Washington cares about you? But get used to it folks. Nothing will get done after the election for at least 4 years either. How does it feel to know we are on our own?
But it was more than CJ Roberts that produced this ruling. It is also a product of four other Justices who are Democrats and of the liberal or progressive stripe. So I think whatever comes out of it is more than a Roberts product. He would not have been allowed to write the majority opinion if the other four members of the majority had not approved it from top to bottom.
BTW - I've enjoyed reading your writing on here since you've sat back down at the keyboard.
RB
Congress has been going back and forth on health care for as long as I can remember. Republicans and Democrats both have been for it, then against it, then for it, and so on, and so on. It has bee debated over and over. However, not at any time did I see anyone in Washington say to us "OK, let's pass this health care bill. But, if we do pass it, it will also be the health care we adopt for the House, Senate, the President, and all of our appointees and staff".
So, does anyone think any of this is what is best for the country? If you do, then shouldn't what they do be good enough for them as well? If I were a member of Congress as a Republican, I wouldn't go after the health care law itself now. I would introduce a bill that would take away the members' health care program as it is now, and make everyone in Congress go by the new law. Make them pay for their own health care plans, and if they don't purchase a plan by 2014, fine (or tax..whatever you want to call it)them as well. Shouldn't what is good for us be good for them as well?
I would absolutely love to see the vote on a bill like that. But, I never will. No bill like that would ever make it to the floor for a vote.
I had read somewhere (not sure where - there's so much been written last coupla days) that this act did just that - i.e. put COngress etc into it. I haven't read enough of the act to know for myself whether that is true or false, and it's a mighty small detail in 2500 pages of document.
Do you know? - I don't.
RB
I applaude the POTUS for doing this because health care is broken. I just wished he would have went further on breaking up the monoply of Drug Companies (Patent Products so they can bot be refined as generic) and done something with Tort reform (lower the amounts ued so doctors don't have to spend a billion on malpractice insurance. I agree the problem with America is to many people want a free lunch so now they have to pay for this one or get taxed by the men in black....but I just wish he would have went further.....but today is a good day for people with pre existing illnesses and kids under the age of 26
If it stands, as in repealed/not repealed, there are some problems. On a personal basis, if you are 26 and NOT a full time student in college (as in med school or graduate school) at that age you should be off the couch and paying your own way. Not mooching off your parents who are probably trying to save for their old age. If you were disabled prior to age 18 you should be able to stay on parents insurance for life, but most likely you will be on some other form of public insurance paid for by the tax payers. I also have not heard if parents are REQUIRED to keep you on their insurance. Shouldn't they have the right to say to their child, go get your own. At that age you can get minimal coverage for a reasonable price.
And the cutting of medicare, already doctors are encouraged not to send Medicare patients to the hospital. And Medicare is being cut..reminder, we paid for Medicare, it is Medicaid that recipients have not paid into. This is a decision that the doctor should make, not the government or the insurance company.
We will wait and see. God willing we will have enough people who can see through the fog Mrs Pelosi seems to stay in and get this mess turned around. November will be here soon.
The Affordable Health Care Act is not my dream program, but it's a massive step in the right direction of providing basic care for all Americans. Since you don't like it, C, perhaps you will share with us your ideas about how to bring American health care costs in line with the other industrialized nations and cover every citizen with basic health care? Every other nation does this and 34 of them have better care than we do. We're getting ripped off.
One step at a time and be open and honest. Have CBO score with previous similar legislation and make sure they take that into account when they figure cost.
And for the love of Pete, don't be so arrogant as to say "You have to pass it to find out what is in it" It is an insult to the American people. Perhaps, if they had not been so hell bent on passage immediately and had admitted and made public other suggestions being by offered the outcome may have been a very good piece of legislation.
I probably have a few years on most of you all here, and when I was a child health insurance was for having babies, surgery or a trip to the ER. Drug coverage was non-existent. Now, do I like having doctor office visits covered and prescription coverage, you bet I do, but everything in moderation.
We do not promote personal responsibility, we try to legislate it. That is like trying to legislate morals. If a person is too cheap or lazy to get even mimimal health care coverage, then they need to be willing to suffer the consequencs. That is a far cry from someone who wants it and can't get it, I truly believe there needs to be a safety net, but the safety net is very expensive and out of reach of most people who need it. There is not a simple fix, but it should be incremental. We are being ripped off, by the government and the insurance companies. The doctors and their patients are the ones who suffer.
We will continue to get ripped off, WC. Remember, not the government nor the people control this country. It's big business and special interests that run it. The drug companies, the oil companies, and large energy industries are just a few of those. And who donates to the candidates on both sides of the isle? These same companies do. And, special interests do as well. That was shown yesterday too, when some of those who voted for contempt of Eric Holder did it because of their NRA rating.
Health care costs will not be reigned in, no matter what Congress does or doesn't do. And, when the stock market starts rising even at a moderate rate, oil prices will rise and gas will go back up. Of course, they will blame it on the uncertainty in the Middle East.
You see, we keep recycling politicians and sending them right back to Washington. Then we sit back and complain about how bad Congress is. Many do not agree with me, but term limits would be a good start to alleviating a lot of our problems. We, the people are to blame. Until we stop blaming the wrong people and do something about our own choices, nothing gets fixed.
The system is rigged, and it's not tilted toward you and me. It really is up to individuals to make good choices.
Living and teaching Earth friendly sustainable agricultural practices.
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RB, the members of Congress are already afforded a health care plan form their employers; us. The thought that they would have to abide by this law was not even discussed. Anyone in their right mind who has 100% coverage would never take that away from themselves.
Yes, it is a very lengthy bill. There are many favors put into the bill (now law) in order to get "undecided" members to vote for it. These favors have nothing to do with health care. It also takes away 500 billion dollars from the current Medicare insurance.
The health care law will be costly. Personally, I think you will actually see health care costs rise instead of drop. In the end, it would have been more cost effective to go to Medicare for all. It is still 80% coverage without the tax mandate. More doctors will accept Medicare than the new law.
My personal physician and my Urologist have already decided not to accept this insurance. Insurance companies may not be able to refuse coverage for preexisting conditions. But, the law does not say that doctors have to accept it. And we have to ask "What is an affordable rate for premiums"? In 2014, when everyone has to buy health insurance, it might just be cheaper to continue to do without.
Thanks for the response. I agree that none of the congress-critters are going to take a thing away from themselves.
This is a very interesting point about the insurence being there but not accepted by the docs. If the doc won't accept it, it's like not having it. Very interesting.
I have no doubt that the very complexity of the law, combined with the inevitably increased complexity of any rules that flow from a law, will induce the law of unintended consequences, and there will be significant hings that bite us in the butt.
RB
There is a provision in this law that allows states to have the ability to be removed from this health care law. Several states have already done that, after the bill was signed in 2010. Other states already had a health care program, and were exempt. If the state adopts their own health care system, they can opt out of this law. The old Tenn Care system would have been one of those type insurance programs.
There is a way for Tennessee to have an affordable health care program. My suggestion would be to call out law makers and demand they start working on it immediately. Stop wasting time on passing bills that makes it mandatory to buckle up your dog. (That one was really followed by a certain law maker, huh?) Demand they start working on things that matter to Tennesseans; things like health care, actively seeking business, and putting people to work.
Pass a state health care bill that allows small businesses to band together so they can provide their employees with that coverage. Pass a bill that allows Tennesseans to make their own choices. There is a way to do this. I even have ideas. But our current Representative would not make time in her busy schedule to even sit down with me and discuss it.
Writing and passing a health care bill would take time. It would call for making some changes in the way we do things. And, it would take a vote to change the State Constitution by Tennesseans. But, who would vote down a viable, affordable health care program?