Do not panic. Carry your towel. Enroll on healthcare.gov.
the exchanges are still open. You can get insurance. Ignore the Texas judge. His ruling will be overturned shortly.
Here’s the important thing from @CMSgovPress: “The recent federal court decision is still moving through the courts, and the exchanges are still open for business and we will continue with open enrollment. There is no impact to current coverage or coverage in a 2019 plan.”
— Bertha Coombs (@berthacoombs) December 15, 2018
rikyrah
Thanks for keeping us calm, Mayhew ?
cmorenc
It takes major hutzpah for a Federal District Judge to issue a sweeping ruling against the constitutionality of a law on 10th Amendment grounds, which SCOTUS upheld 6-3 as recently as 2015 (King v Burwell), including directly on-point to much of the District Court’s rationale. That’s why GOP ideologues are often selecting his district in which to bring challenges to federal legislation they would like to invalidate.
Among the goals of McConnell and the GOP Senate majority in packing the lower federal courts with right-wing Federalist Society ideologues is to create as much of a tar pit to tangle up progressive programs as possible, even if the already conservative-leaning Supreme Court (or in some federal circuits, the Circuit Appellate court) will eventually over-rule them. Of course, McConnell et. al. hope to turn those eventually as well, given enough time.
Duane
I trust you’re right. You should be right. But many things aren’t right in our country thanks to people like Reed O’Conner. However, I’ll cancel my order for a piano and hoist to be delivered in North Texas.
JPL
The first bill out of the house should be a ten dollar tax for those evading health care insurance. Shut this sh.t down now.
If republicans in the Senate don’t bring it to the floor, vote them out
Another Scott
@Duane: Isn’t a huge part of the problem with this ruling the fact that Donnie’s DOJ argued that important parts of the PPACA were unconstitutional (27 page .pdf), opening the door for the judge to go to town?
If we had a sensible Congress and DOJ then this judge’s ruling wouldn’t be getting headlines because the record would have been such as to prevent him from making it. We need to hammer on the ruling, but also on those that made it possible – the elected monsters and their minion appointees.
Grr…
I’m sure Nancy Smash will do her best to roll this stuff back, but it’s going to be a long slog…
Cheers,
Scott.
Quaker in a Basement
Renewed today! For the same coverage as last year, my subsidized premiums went DOWN by about $100 a month.
Mary G
I know that the horse isn’t going back into the barn, and I’ve been on Medicare for 12 years now, but this still terrifies me, because I remember when I couldn’t have surgeries I desperately needed because I had a 30% co-pay on my expensive as hell crappy insurance.
This asshole just pushed a significant percentage of Republican voters over the line to the Democrats, though, because a lot of people have had my experience and know the peace of mind from having protection from financial catastrophe caused by medical expenses is worth its weight in gold. So thanks, Judge Bastard.
Mark Regan
Another essential product from Douglas Adams:
DON’T PANIC! If necessary, wear your Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, featured in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. They “have been specially designed to help people develop a relaxed attitude to danger. At the first hint of trouble, they turn totally black and thus prevent you from seeing anything that might alarm you.”
David Anderson
@Quaker in a Basement: awesome
Chris Johnson
@JPL: Well, you can fuck right off. Jesus. Entitled much?
JPL
@Chris Johnson: You misunderstood me. The reason the judge overturned the law is because the mandate penalty is not longer in place. If that is true the penalty (tax) could be small. I’d rather that then having it go before the SC and throw the law out.
JPL
Couldn’t it be argued that a future congress can reinstate the penalty, thus making the argument mute? Obviously I’m not a lawyer since my solution caused some to accuse me of being entitled and to f..k off.
JPL
@Chris Johnson: By get rid of this shit, I meant the lawsuit which was bogus. Sorry if I wasn’t clearer.
Duane
@Another Scott: Grrr…to say the least. Trumpov’s twittering around singing ” Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.” Nancy Smash needs to drop a house on his puckered orange ass.
Chris Johnson
@JPL: Oh, ‘k. Sorry about going off on you like that :) Yes, get rid of the lawsuit. Hope they do. Put like that, now I understand you. I didn’t bitch about paying a penalty come tax-time before: it was less than many hundreds of dollars a month, which is just a non-starter.