The June 28th Supreme Court decision that let Obamacare stand gives the president, and all Democrats, an opportunity to remake the case that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a good thing. That's a blessing because many American voters do not understand Obamacare.
The most recent USA Today/Gallup Poll finds Americans evenly split on Obamacare with 46 percent agreeing with the Supreme Court decision, 46 percent disagreeing, and eight percent unsure. While Democrats and Republicans divided along party lines, a slight plurality (45 percent) of Independents approved the ruling.
Nonetheless, many of those who say they do not like Obamacare do not understand it. An April Kaiser Family Foundation Tracking Poll found that only 51 percent of respondents believed they had enough information about how the law would affect them personally. However, when asked their opinion about specific provisions of the law -- "the law will prohibit insurance companies from charging women higher premiums than men" -- typically a strong majority approved. When voters understand Obamacare they like it. (Even Republicans.)
President Obama, and all Democrats, needs to do a better job of conveying the benefits of the Affordable Care Act. Here are 5 points to remember:
1. Obamacare reflects values, not policy. At the root of the healthcare controversy are two different conceptions of America. Most Democrats believe that we belong to a "benevolent community" and work together for the common good; as President Obama has repeatedly said, "It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper, that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family." Linguists George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling refer to this notion as "The Public," "everything that our citizenry as a whole provides to all."
On the other hand, Republicans believe the U.S. is a collection of rugged individuals, each competing in the free market. Lakoff and Wehling term this worldview, "The Private," noting "a free market economy depends upon a strong Public."
From the benevolent-community perspective government, The Public, is how we organize to get certain things done: build roads, construct schools, and make sure that every American has a minimal standard of living including access to affordable healthcare. From the rugged-individual concept, government is an encumbrance; the Private already provides healthcare for some Americans.
2. Healthcare is a right, not a product. Those of us who believe in the benevolent-community vision of America view healthcare as a right that should be enjoyed by all Americans. Those of us who believe in the free-market vision of America see healthcare as a product; Republican Rudy Giuliani once likened healthcare to a flat-screen TV, "If you want a flat screen TV, buy one; and if you don't have the money, go earn it. If you can't, too bad, you don't deserve it."
3. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) regulates insurance companies; it does not regulate healthcare. Obamacare guarantees access to healthcare for all Americans -- except illegal immigrants -- by regulating insurance companies. President Obama defended this by observing:
Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy. These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans. Some can't get insurance on the job. Others are self-employed, and can't afford it, since buying insurance on your own costs you three times as much as the coverage you get from your employer. Many other Americans who are willing and able to pay are still denied insurance due to previous illnesses or conditions that insurance companies decide are too risky or too expensive to cover. We are the only democracy -- the only advanced democracy on Earth -- the only wealthy nation -- that allows such hardship for millions of its people. There are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage. In just a two-year period, one in every three Americans goes without health care coverage at some point. And every day, 14,000 Americans lose their coverage. In other words, it can happen to anyone.
4. Obamacare will lower insurance costs. The Affordable Care Act will lower insurance premiums for most Americans. First, it requires everyone to have insurance and eliminates free loaders. Second, it requires insurance companies to spend money on services and not overhead.
5. Obamacare will decrease the deficit. Mitt Romney, and Republicans in general, have spread misinformation about this. However, "in February 2011, the CBO estimated that Obama's health-reform law would reduce the deficit by $210 billion over 10 years."
To summarize, the healthcare debate comes down to five points. Two are value driven and three are factual. Obamacare stresses the primacy of the Public over the Private and asserts that healthcare is a right for every citizen. Furthermore, Obamacare regulates insurance companies thereby lowering consumer costs and the deficit. The Affordable Care Act is worth defending.
Lanny Davis: Why Dems Should Not Gloat Over Health Care Ruling
At the risk of seeming rude ( or am I just, plain...) the private used to be a place where the Public would go alleviate itself ; let it occupy that throne again ! ( Seeing as most of the people who bemoan the ' ficititious ' grand rgihts and plans of the private have absolutely no idea of what's involved in their plaint.)
As we continue to face one of the worst economies since the Great Depression, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts "Obamacare" will reduce the nation's labor supply by 800,000 workers. Private economists predict an even larger nationwide loss of up to 2 million jobs.
Furthermore, a recent Chamber of Commerce survey indicated that a whopping 74 percent of small businesses say the law makes it more difficult for them to hire new workers.
We cannot afford the law. The annual survey on employer-provided insurance by the Kaiser Family Foundation indicates that average family premiums have increased by roughly $2,200 since Obamacare's passage.
Additionally, the law contains $813 billion of new taxes and weighs in at a total cost of almost $2 trillion. In other words, the so-called Affordable Care Act is not so affordable.
The law raid Medicare of half a trillion dollars, it also creates a panel of 15 unelected bureaucrats called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) ration health care to seniors know as the “DEATH PANEL“.
After Obamacare is eliminated, we must continue to listen to the people and improve health care in a way the government to NOT undermine the patient-doctor relationship, harm job creation or our economy, or commit us to bankruptcy.
2. Health care ought to be a right, but the ACA cements its status as a high-profit product.
3. ACA sticks bubblegum in a few cracks in the health care system, but the insurers and health care providers will still take billions from us in return for as little as they can get away with.
4. The suggestion that for-profit insurers will lower prices or slow the the increase in prices because of a a bigger and better risk pool is naive. There is nothing to keep them increasing their profits, either from increasing prices or decreasing benefits. An industry that has gotten rich by cancelling the policies of families struck with cancer is not going to act reasonably or ethically where profits are concerned.
5. Anxiety about the deficit is a right wing talking point, and to dignify it by even mentioning it is to surrender to the bad guys.
By offering med pros a write-off on their income tax for "charity" work, which could include a charity charge as supplement to taking Medicaid and another ten million are covered. My program includes more ideas that are simple supply demand common sense.
http://youtu.be/KWKMPRFNowM?hd=1.l;
But I'm not getting your math on the 1Tr. a year. I missed that in the CBO reports, they're predicting a reduction in the deficit
"Over the 10-year period from 2012 through 2021, enactment of the coverage provisions of the ACA was projected last March to increase federal deficits by $1,131 billion, whereas the March 2012 estimate indicates that those provisions will increase deficits by $1,083 billion."
SCOTUS ruled 7 to 2 that states could not be forced into the ACA expanded medicaid program. Many states will now “opt out” do to budget constraints. The nationwide median medicaid cutoff is at 63% of the poverty level. Working poor who make too much to qualify for medicaid are now mandated under the ACA to buy for profit health insurance or pay the IRS penalty.
17 million working poor are in the GAP, earning too much to qualify for medicaid but not at least 100% of the poverty level. They don’t get a subsidy for mandated health insurance because ACA subsidies are doled out on a sliding scale only to those earning from 100% to 400% of the poverty level.
How many million working poor moms are caught in the GAP and forced under the ACA to buy for profit health insurance at full price or be penalized by the IRS withholding tax refunds? How do you defend that?