Now that it appears Obamacare is dead, what’s Obama’s Plan B? The issue won’t be addressed in a lame duck session, so it’ll remain unaddressed for the election. I presume Obama will be reelected, so what is his plan B? The next term he has to address the debt ceiling, deficit, current Medicare/Medicaid expansion issues, Bush tax cut expiration… and yet he promised his #1 agenda item for his legacy was universal health care for all Americans. Add to that he won’t have a clotureless Senate or a majority in the House so ramming thru an unconstitutional piece of entitlement legislation is out of the question. And what is the GOP going to do? Even though the majority of the American people do not want a single payer universal health care system, I think there is sufficient pressure now from the public to do something about various aspects of health care- how to continue to address the uninsured, raising the age of children to be covered under their parent’s health plan, how to better provide coverage for pre-existing illnesses…. These issues can no longer be ignored or passed along. I mean, declaring it a states’ rights issue may be the intellectually appropriate thing to do, but it’s becoming political suicide. So whadda they gonna do?
This country has got to have more brains than to re-elect him again. I realize the republicans don't have a great candidate, but c'mon
Obama may not be a good President, but neither was Bush or Clinton. They each got reelected. I can't imagine Romney being able to unseat Obama. Obama is a tough and shrewed politician and Romney will be fodder under his feet.
Did they say the compulsory part was not severable from the rest of the Act? e: because that was the third topic to be discussed. If it is severable, then the health industry is going to lose a lot of money without the compulsory part.
The White House argued that the compulsory part (and the states footing a large part of the bill as well) was such a minor aspect of the bill that they had virtually no bearing on it. Even 2 of the 4 liberal justices attacked that one. It seems assured that if, by a 5-4 decision, that various aspects are found unconstitutional, then the entire bill is gone.
I don't understand your first part and very last. Could you explain what the supreme court actually said on that part? Or your source? e: here is NPR take: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/03/27/149469674/supreme-court-mulls-whether-health-law-can-survive-without-mandate e2: so it sounds like the WHOLE bill won't go away, but three parts (the pre-existing conditions, the mandate, and all customers of the same age must be charged the same) will also go away. But not the rest of it, ie the parental coverage, the medicare expansion (maybe that too though).
Scalia basically mocked the government lawyer asking if they were supposed to rule on all 2700 pages, and even Ginsburg had a good laugh at the absurdity of ruling on each portion of the law. It was a mistake from the beginning, and it was rammed down our throats through bribes to Louisiana and Nebraska, and a procedural rule for the final vote. It's never been popular, and now it's likely going to be ruled unconstitutional. Kind of funny that a "constitutional lawyer" like Obama's pet legislation violates the Constitution, IMO.
To me it's a states right issue. I'd like to see the feds give monies to the states to expand their own plans to provide insurance to those who are truly uninsured and have no access to health care benefits. States then can determine how to best use the money for that end. There are several ways to do so and each will find their preferred method.
That depends on how it's funded. Single payer would almost assuredly involve a mandatory pay-in, or a massive tax increase that will cripple our economy. Nobody is going to vote for that idea at this point.
Well, I don't know anything about that, but the feds can have strings attached to the money (states must guarantee abortions covered...) but that's a different debate for a different day.
That's what Medicare and Medicaid are for, though. Doctors are already denying Medicare/Medicaid money because the states aren't getting the money, and the doctors aren't being paid.
It would be it it were a straight tax based entitlement program rather than a forced purchase commodity based program. But that was politically impossible.
