Robert Reich called it right -- although he was one vote short. The day before the Supreme Court found the Affordable Care Act constitutional, he predicted that John Roberts would be the justice who would back the act. Conservatives are predictably furious. They accuse Roberts of everything from legal hanky-panky to treachery.
But Paul Krugman writes in today's New York Times that: "This was a big day, a victory for due process, decency and the American people." That's because there are so many winners -- not just the 30 million Americans who do not have health insurance:
In short, unless you belong to that tiny class of wealthy Americans who are insulated and isolated from the realities of most people’s lives, the winners from that Supreme Court decision are your friends, your relatives, the people you work with — and, very likely, you. For almost all of us stand to benefit from making America a kinder and more decent society.
It would be heartening if Americans could now move on to the question of jobs and how to create them. Rest assured, though, that yesterday's landmark decision will be part of the election campaign. Krugman writes that:
what was and is really striking about the anti-reformers is their cruelty. It would be one thing if, at any point, they had offered any hint of an alternative proposal to help Americans with pre-existing conditions, Americans who simply can’t afford expensive individual insurance, Americans who lose coverage along with their jobs. But it has long been obvious that the opposition’s goal is simply to kill reform, never mind the human consequences. We should all be thankful that, for the moment at least, that effort has failed.
Ironically, the genesis of the Affordable Care Act came from the Heritage Foundation. And the first politican to implement the plan was a Republican governor -- the man currently hoping to move into the White House -- who claims that repealing the act will be his first act as president.
You get the impression that Republicans oppose the act, not because of its substance, but because of who proposed it. Perhaps that's why they have insisted on calling it "Obamacare."
This entry is cross posted at The Moderate Voice.
2 comments:
In my opinion the Obamacare is really a Republican style of program designed to enrich the insurance companies. The reason the Republicans attach it is, as they have stated many times, "to make Obama a one term president". Behind this is racism and fear of foreigners as well as an irrations view that only the market place can get the job done. The American Health Care plan will not achieve the goal of lowering the cost. The only way to do this is to get the private insurers out of the health care field. They will have to learn this the hard way.
I wonder how many Republican States will have the courage of their convictions and opt out and refuse the federal money.
One State that is trying to have a single payer plan is Vermont. The ideologues on the right are currently attack this progressive plan to try to make it fail. If is succeeds it could be a model for other States.
The Americans may finally come to realize, Philip, that the best way to control costs is to move to a single payer system.
And, like Massachusetts, Vermont may lead the way to reform.
Meanwhile, Stephen Harper nips away at the Canadian single payer system.
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