(ThyBlackMan.com) Out of the four challenges to the Affordable Care Act the Supreme Court has chosen to take up the challenge spearheaded in Florida and agreed upon by 25 other states and a business. The challenge the 11th circuit court agreed with Florida and the other states in that President Obama’s landmark law was unconstitutional. I am not a lawyer, a judge, or overly familiar with all of the legalese surrounding this case. For that specific analysis try this article, what I am though is a blogger and news nerd who believes this case will be bigger than Bush v. Gore in the simple fact that the issue doesn’t deal with the governance of all Americans but the lives of all Americans and all residents.
When President Obama began the fight to reform the nation’s health care system he laid out his plan in a speech before a joint session of Congress as a moral issue. He crafted a plan based on the universal healthcare law passed in 
the commonwealth of Massachusetts and signed by then governor turned GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney. Obama employed the expertise of the late Senator Ted Kennedy who had been fighting for such reform since the failed attempt during the Clinton administration. The President invoked the legacy of President Teddy Roosevelt who began this fight more than 100 years ago. When the modern fight for health care reform began in 2009 — shortly after the quick and successful passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Stimulus) — debate was fiery and contentious and gave the Tea Party more to talk about besides bailouts and corporate welfare.
The proposal for the law ignited and united people across the country in opposition to a bill they most likely didn’t understand because President Obama and the Democrats didn’t take time to explain it in easy to consume talking points. Where Republicans came with death panels and tort reform the Democrats failed to explain “Medicare for All” and essentially caved on a public option in exchange for a health care exchange and end of life counseling… nice work if you can get it. Still in some way the law was passed even after the historic and confusing election of Scott Brown.
But no sooner than the bill passed and was signed then the challenges came. At issue: the mandate that every American buy health insurance or be penalized. A mandate that doesn’t go into effect until 2014 and can’t be enforced until 2015. Yet a mandate that many in opposition to the law feel is an instance of Big Government significantly overstepping its bounds. Much like a federal law banning gay marriage (not to change the subject) or the law requiring citizens to pay into Medicare or Social Security, or the law requiring citizens to treat all people of all races, religions, sexual orientations etc… with the respect illustrated by non-discriminatory, non-prejudicial actions, laws, and policies.
The Affordable Care Act is not the first time the arm of the Federal government has seemed to reach into the lives of the American people when it was unnecessary. But 47 million people without health insurance using the emergency room as their doctor’s office is also unnecessary. In 2009 while the health care debate was boiling over in Congress and in Congressional town halls across the country, Gallup released a poll that found one in six Americans are without health insurance. Their Bottom Line:
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index finds that while a large majority of Americans have health insurance, one in six in this country is without coverage. The current percentage of uninsured Americans (16.0%) represents a small, but measurable increase over last year. Hispanic Americans, at a rate approaching triple the national average, are the most likely subset of the population to be uninsured. Those making less than $36,000 per year are the second-most-likely group to be uninsured, with 18- to 29-year-olds following closely behind.
The last two statistics are me all day long. If it were not for my job I would be paying $94 a month for a private plan. When I first started working I was only offered catastrophic insurance. I accepted. A year later I bought my own plan for $94 a month. Three months later I got a new job and have since had benefits offered to me by my employer. Many opponents of the health care law feel a burden is put on businesses by forcing them to offer health insurance therefore keeping them from hiring more employees and expanding the economy. However, what good is a business where workers who fall sick cannot take care of themselves to get well in a timely manner. Doesn’t that then force employers to hire new employees to fill the vacant positions or force the company to get by with less? Both scenarios cut into time, productivity, and profits.
I have no problem with people, politicians opposing the Affordable Care Act. But what are the other options that will help to insure every American and lower the cost of health care at a time when our aging population is going to need it more and more?
The Supreme Court taking up this case is very necessary but very scary. The court is an activist court. The conservatives will vote conservative, the liberals will vote liberally. The undecideds or the middle of the roads will make the final decision in what may very well be a tight 5-4 split in either direction. If the individual mandate is upheld hopefully Congress will seek to make the entire law stronger instead of stripping it mandate by mandate of all its power. If the individual mandate is deemed unconstitutional hopefully Congress and President Obama (if he’s re-elected) will go back to the drawing board and try again to come up with something that will cover the country and allow them access to quality and affordable health care.
I’m not so much concerned with the Supreme Court taking up the case and their ruling. My concern is what happens after the decision is read and the law is cemented or dismantled. Do we go back to being a country where it’s okay one in six adults don’t have health insurance, premiums can increase at an insurers will, and pre-existing conditions like being a pregnant woman or an asthmatic child bar you from the coverage that you need; or do we try again to do something better for our grandparents, parents, ourselves and our children so that they’re not waiting to see an overworked clinic doctor at 3 in the afternoon or a half-sleep E.R. doctor at 1 in the morning.
There’s no doubt are health care and health insurance system needs reform. The question now is how do we do it? A question that will now be left in the hands of nine justices each with their own unique opinions and possible political axe to grind.
Do you think the Supreme Court will uphold or strike down the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act?
Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper
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