Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

White supremacy is terrorism.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

He really is that stupid.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

The ACA benefits from de-centering

by | 8 Comments

This post is in: 

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.

Comments are closed.