Obamacare on the Chopping Block

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 21, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

                   Waiting with bated breath, President Barack Obama must accept the fate of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Affordable Care Act.  Obama’s signature legislation hangs in the balance as conservatives on the High Court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. view the Affordable Care Act violation the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, prohibiting the government for forcing citizens to buy products across state lines.  When  six hour of oral arguments were heard before the Court March 27, Obama’s Solicitor General Donald B. Verilli couldn’t respond to conservatives’ simple objections, with Roberts asking Verriilli whether the Affordable Care Act was like forcing U.S. citizens to buy cell phones.  Associate Justice Antonin Scalia whether mandating U.S. citizens to buy health insurance was comparable to forcing folks to eat broccoli.  Now the White House waits the high-stakes Supreme Court ruling that could weigh heavily on November’s presidential election.

          If the Supreme Court reflects the latest New York Times/CBS News poll indicating that 68% of the U.S. population opposes passage of Obamacare, the law will be almost certainly tossed out.  Critics say that forcing Americans to buy health insurance is un-American, despite mandated payroll deductions for Medicare and Social Security.  Since 1965, no U.S. wage-earner or self-employed person can opt out of paying for Medicare.  Verrilli had every opportunity to point that out during six hour of oral arguments before the court where conservative justices trivialized paying for national health coverage as the same forcing citizens to buy funeral arrangements.  When Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) prevented Democrats from approving “Medicare –for-all Dec. 9, 2009, it was the beginning of the end for Obamacare.  Without a so-called single-payer Medicare-for-all provision, Obamacare was turned into its current incarnation of forced medical insurance.

             When Democrats controlled the House and Senate in 2008, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) seized the moment to pass some version of national health care.  When Lieberman threw the monkey wrench into Medicare-for-all, the White House had to go back to the drawing board and pass an acceptable alternative.  When Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law March 23, 2010, it was passed on purely party-line votes, with not one Republican voting for the bill.  After passing the U.S. Senate Dec. 24, 2009, it was destined for the president’s signature March 23, 2010, a carbon copy for the health care legislation signed into law April 12, 2006  by GOP presidential candidate, former Massachusetts; Gov  Mitt Romney.   Romney called Obamacare ‘wrong” and vowed should it pass the Supreme Court to repeal the bill if becomes law.  Romney objects to Obamacare not because he opposes national health care but because wants to galvanize his Party’s conservative base and win the presidency next November.

              When you consider that 68% of voters oppose Obamacare, it makes you wonder why Democrats spent so much political capital passing the bill.  If the High Court tosses out any major provision of the bill, especially the government mandate, it will be a shot in the arm for the Romney campaign.  Whether or not it sinks the Obama campaign is anyone’s guess.  At the time the bill was pushed by Democrats in 2009 the country suffered a major economic calamity, with the stock market tanking and American businesses shedding over 100,000 jobs a month.  Republicans felt that Obamacare should be postponed until the economy recovered, something Democrats refused to do.  Now that the Supreme Court will get the final say, it’s doubtful that it will uphold the madate provision, the key feature Democrats insist makes the program work.  It’s obvious that participants in the last Times/CBS poll were not among the nations’ 30 million without health insurance.

            Obama’s Affordable Care Act tried to do two basic things:  (a) make health care more affordable for all and (b) prevent insurance companies from denying coverage or rating it up because of pre-existing conditions.  Today’s health care system discriminates against individuals, giving preferential treatment to groups.  Unlike groups, individuals are forced to qualify for medical insurance.  Insurance companies opposed the ACA believing they’d lose profits insuring sick individuals.  Obamacare also tried to standardize insurance policies, giving all subscribers the same deductibles, copayments and  waiting periods as federal employees.  Too many subscribers have outrageously high deductibles preventing them from using their insurance until high deductibles are met.  For others, copayments have gone up too high, forcing subscribers to go too much out-of-pocket   National objections to Obamacare are based on conservatives’ successful propaganda campaigns.

           Looking at the looming Supreme Court decision on Obamacare, it’s doubtful that even swing voting Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy will support the individual mandate provision.  If the High Court tosses out the individual mandate but leaves the rest of the legislation intact, it’s still a political blow to Obama.  “A rejection of Obamacare would enable Republicans to argue that the president wasted much of his term on a power grab when he should have been spending his time and energy trying to create jobs,” said John J. Pitney Jr., political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California.  As the recent Times/CBS poll proves, if nothing else, the White House has done a poor job of selling Obamacare to the American public.  While the Supreme Court won’t cite any polls, they’ll mirror the same objections as ordinary citizens that don’t want the government forcing them to buy insurance.  Given Verrilli’s weak performance March 27, things don’t look good for Obama.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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