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Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Let’s finish the job.

This blog will pay for itself.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

This fight is for everything.

The revolution will be supervised.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

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You can’t love your country only when you win.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

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“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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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