Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Bark louder, little dog.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

Stand up, dammit!

Everybody saw this coming.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

He really is that stupid.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Come on, man.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / The ACA benefits from de-centering

The ACA benefits from de-centering

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The Kaiser Family Foundation team of analysts have a new Health Affairs article on ACA polling.  The Hill has a good graph:


A few things happened in March 2017. That was when the ACA was under threat of repeal, a lot of people who disapproved of the ACA because it did not do enough in their opinions became supporters as the options were the ACA or Repeal and maybe Replace instead of the ACA vs. Perfect Plan that could never get 218 votes and then in 2018-2019-2020, it has been decentralized from our political discussion. It is chugging along without being an existential political struggle and it is becoming background status quo that is either helpful to people or barely noticable to the vast majority of people.

Now the ACA is in conference again at the Supreme Court this morning. The Justices are discussing whether or not they want to take Texas v. Azar, the trolling case that argues that since Congress eliminated zero-ed out the individual mandate penalty amount, they meant to eliminate the entire law. The ACA might resurface again in the next few months as a major partisan issue if the Justices agree to expedite the case even as they have options for a nine month punt or a two or three year punt.

Reader Interactions

8Comments

  1. 1.

    Anya

    This is great. Hopefully when we get a public option, people don’t lose their minds.

    By the way, I read every post and I always learn something and I forward it to people. I just don’t comment because I have nothing to add. But I want you to know that I appreciate you. Thank you so much.

  2. 2.

    randy khan

    I would bet heavily against the Supreme Court taking the case now on an expedited basis.  There’s no way the conservatives would want it to be part of the political discussion in the fall.

  3. 3.

    Anonymous at Work

    @randy khan: Only takes 4 votes to take up a case.  Liberal justices have incentive to play chicken with Roberts over making Obamacare and conservative judicial activism on the ballot in November.

  4. 4.

    burnspbesq

    @Anonymous at Work:

    “The hard part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch.”

    There are at least three Justices who couldn’t give jack shit about 100 years of consistent Supreme Court precedent on severability, and two wild cards. You really want to make that bet?

  5. 5.

    Ohio Mom

    Not really on topic: I am finally all enrolled in my Medicare plans, which go into effect March 1st. I am quite thrilled with my red, white and blue card.

    I went the traditional route, which meant wading through Gap plans and drug plans. What a thicket!

    How do very old people who have lost cognitive ability manage? It is a somewhat sadistic system, especially the drug plans with their different formularies and doughnut dip. We could do a lot better as a country.

  7. 7.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Now the ACA is in conference again at the Supreme Court this morning. The Justices are discussing whether or not they want to take Texas v. Azar, the trolling case that argues that since Congress eliminated the individual mandate, they meant to eliminate the entire law.

    Nitpick: Congress didn’t *eliminate* the individual mandate; they *zeroed out the penalty*.

    The argument being made is “Congress can tell you to get insurance, *or* pay a tax/fine; but they can’t just *tell* you to get insurance, period, with *no* penalty.” It’s not even trolling, really; trolling usually sounds like a semi-sensible argument.

    The lack of severability is  similarly bad faith; the argument is, since the Obama administration argued it was an essential part of the law, it *is* an essential part of the law (regardless of what Congress said), and the entire law must be eliminated, just because the mandate no longer has a penalty.

    So, the ACA is constitutional if it forces people to buy a product, or pay a fine; but it’s not, if it tells people to buy insurance, or pay a $0 fine, because otherwise, the right wing couldn’t keep trying to destroy the ACA… and the right wing considers that a cogent legal argument.

  8. 8.

    Sab

    @Ohio Mom: I am dealing with that now. I did all kinds of research on Plan D when it started. My mother quite stubbornly insisted on a different plan, so that’s what she and dad got. She passed away seven years ago. Dad is deaf and has dementia, and it’s nearly impossible to change plans, because the insurance companies insist on talking to him. Fortunately he did sign a medical POA for me. So I need to find a better plan, and then mail off the paperwork that proves I am allowed to speak for him.

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