Ruling 6 to 3 the U.S. Supreme Court in King v. Burwell, government subsidies for the Affordable Care Act continue, protecting over 6 million subscribers receiving untold millions in government help. Conservatives thought they had the legal ace-in-the-hole against a flaw written into the original Affordable Care Act offering government subsidies only to subscribers enrolling in state-approved insurance exchanges. When the government Website HealthCare.gov opened Oct. 1, 2013, it was riddled with software glitches, preventing most folks from signing up and embarrassing the White House. Once the bugs were worked out, enrollment steadily increased to today’s 16.4 million. In King v. Burwell, plaintiffs backed by conservative elements in the GOP, hoped to win on the law’s technicality, that only enrollees from state exchanges were eligible for government subsidies.
Hailing the Supreme Court ruling, President Barack Obama, stated the obvious that the ACA was here to stay. Republicans, especially those running for the 2016 presidency, all want Obamacare repealed, despite the fact that over 16.4 million Americans get their health insurance through either state insurance exchanges or the HealthCare.gov Website. “Five years ago, after nearly a century of talk, decades of trying, a year of bipartisan debate, we finally declared that in America, health care is not a privilege for a few but a right for all,” said Obama after the Supreme Court ruling. While it’s been an eternity since the Senate passed the ACA Dec. 24, 2009 without one Republican vote and Obama signed it into law March 23, 2010, the intent of the law undermined all GOP objections. Republicans used repealing ACA as a “cause célèbre” since Obama affixed his signature.
When 60-year-old former President George W. Bush appointee Chief Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts cast the swing vote, ruling June 28, 2012 that Obamacare was constitutional, conservatives went berserk. Since then the Republican Party staked its reputation on repealing Obamacare and fighting Obama on every piece of legislation that he backed, until Fast-Track Trade Protect Authority passed the Senate June 23. All fifteen 2016 presidential candidates seek to repeal Obamacare without offering any viable alternative. While Fox News and other GOP TV and radio outlets pounded the anti-Obamacare message since its inception, the public—including the 16.4 million enrollees—have now changed their minds, finally approving the law. Failure of the GOP to admit defeat and accept that it’s now favored by a majority of voters could backfire on them in the 2016 presidential election.
Writing for the minority in King v. Burwell, ever-acerbic conservative Justice Antonin Scalia called the majority’s ruling, aiming his critique at Roberts, “interpretive jiggery-pokery,” “wonderfully convenient,” arguing it was not the court’s fault that the ACA was written so poorly. Roberts’ common sense prevailed in the end. “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve the health insurance markets, not to destroy them.” “If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter,” said Roberts, refuting the High Court’s right to rule on technicalities. While frustrating for conservatives, Obamacare fills a national need to help the uninsured get and pay for health insurance. Scalia’s narrow, technical arguments overlook the 16.4 million Americans receiving the health insurance through state exchanges or the government’s Website.
To anyone reading King v. Burwell with any common sense, it makes no difference where a person purchases Obamacare. If politics prevented some states from starting insurance exchanges, it’s not the intent of the law to prevent folks from getting government-sponsored health insurance. “I disagree with the Court’s ruling and believe they have once again erred in trying to correct the mistakes made by President Obama and Congress in forcing Obamacare on the Amercian people,” said 2016 GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.), repeating obsolete talking points. Rubio and other GOP candidates should read the nationwide polls showing a majority of Americans backing Obamacare. Rubio’s committed to repealing Obamacare and pulling the rug out from underneath 16.4 million voters who now have health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts proved, once again, that he’s the right man for the job, not allowing politics to get in the way of what’s good for the American people. “The Affordable Care Act is here to stay,” said Obama after the ruling, realizing that, despite sacrifices to his popularity and legacy, he’s happy the AFC was worth the political costs. Now that more Americans are getting their health insurance through state exchanges or HealthCare.gov, the public has finally warmed up to the program. Fighting Obamacare or trashing the latest Supreme Court ruling only makes Republicans look petty and self-serving. Despite one of the fiercest most heavily financed media campaigns in U.S. history, the public now accepts Obamacare. Running against it has already backfired, giving Democratic frontrunner former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a bigger margin in the polls
