Supreme Court upheld the health care law

Peaseblossom55 · June 2012

Any thoughts or opinions?

I was shocked it all got upheld. I didn't think it would.

somethingsilver · June 2012

What exactly does this step mean? I'm trying to understand it. Is it just that Obamacare isn't unconstitutional?

lennonkdc · June 2012

The Affordable Care Act was uphelp, which means that the current provisions that allow children up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents insurance, no denial of coverage if your child is born with a birth defect, no removal of coverage if you child has a terminal illness or will require long term care will remain in place. Going forward, it means that states are now required to set up 'Insurance exchanges' (think Travelocity for insurance co.'s) and if your employer does not offer insurance you can buy insurance through one of these exchanges. Those who qualify will be covered under an expansion of medicade, or offered a subsidy to pay for private insurance. If you chose not to buy, you'll be taxed at a rate of an additional 2.5%.

bethsmiles · June 2012

I'm not really sure what my opinion of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is in general. I think it would be awesome for everyone to have access to good health care, I'm not sure if this act is necessarily the best way to go about this. Honestly, I wish that each part of it had been looked at individually and passed or not passed individually to make up a system that was best for our country. The whole thing also seemed rushed to me and in my experience very few things that are rushed are the best they could be.

After reading both the majority and dissenting opinions on this case I have to say I'm a little concerned about what this decision means past health care insurance. I prefer for the government to have very little control over my life, this gives them more control that I don't see as necessary. The individual mandate was held up as Congress's ability to regulate commerce but I have to agree with the dissenting opinion of Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito that to uphold the constitutionality of this act is to greatly expand the powers of the federal government in unprecedented ways.

This quote from the dissenting opinion really stuck out to me: "To be sure, purchasing insurance is 'Commerce'; but one does not regulate commerce that does not exist by compelling its existence."

Whether you are a supporter of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or not it is important to think about how expanding the government's powers in this case sets precedence for other cases in the future.

K Everdeen12 · June 2012

This is awesome. I'm so so so happy.

For those of you who don't know, I took a class last semester all about health care policy and management. We essentially concentrated on the ACA as it was the most relevant thing for us to learn. I can tell you alllll about it if you want.

Lennon covered it most of it. The only thing that didn't pass is that the federal government can penalize states for not expanding Medicaid. They can still require the expansion of benefits, but states have no motivation to. This is worrisome. Hopefully this will be remedied in some way. States will receive benefits for expanding Medicaid, but I would imagine that those benefits would not be enough motivation for those states who already choose to only provide minimum Medicaid benefits.

What most people were saying was unconstitional is that the government can't require you to buy insurance. However the SC decided that it was constitutional to tax citizens for not having insurance. It's not a tax out of your paycheck (because most people would not have to pay it), it would probably be something you would pay when you file your income taxes every year.

Peaseblossom55 · June 2012

I wish the bill would have been broken down into individual laws so it would have been more transparent to the public.

I wonder how they will tax people that don't have the insurance or how they will know who has health insurance or not. I think this is a step in the right direction for us as a country though...

K Everdeen12 · June 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_supreme-court-upheld-the-health-care-law?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:ba46ee32-5673-4989-9d7a-54b1d451a091Post:2ed0d08b-4104-4672-9f27-7f6703bd5dc7">Re: Supreme Court upheld the health care law</a>:
[QUOTE]I wish the bill would have been broken down into individual laws so it would have been more transparent to the public. I wonder how they will tax people that don't have the insurance or how they will know who has health insurance or not. I think this is a step in the right direction for us as a country though...
Posted by danser55[/QUOTE]

<div>The thing is, the ACA needed all of the components together to work as a law - without the individual mandate, insurance premiums would have become far too expensive. </div><div>
</div><div>What they do in Massachusetts is have everyone attached a copy of their premium to their tax return. If you don't have it, you pay the tax penalty. If you don't owe taxes, and get a refund, your refund will be reduced by that penalty. (At least that's my understanding of how they presented this aspect of the ACA.)</div>

Peaseblossom55 · June 2012

The way you present it, it makes sense then that they needed to present it as a whole. I guess since there is a tax I figure it might have to do something with filing tax returns and what not.

beanbot2002 · June 2012

Being that my father and stepmother have played a HUGE roll in the writing, advocating for, and implementation of ACA, I am overjoyed that their years (talking 30+ years) of hard fracking work are paying off.

Peaseblossom55 · June 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_supreme-court-upheld-the-health-care-law?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:ba46ee32-5673-4989-9d7a-54b1d451a091Post:34db2a9b-0abf-4f5a-bb3b-fe363beb8cc8">Re: Supreme Court upheld the health care law</a>:
[QUOTE]Being that my father and stepmother have played a HUGE roll in the writing, advocating for, and implementation of ACA, I am overjoyed that their years (talking 30+ years) of hard fracking work are paying off.
Posted by beanbot2002[/QUOTE]<div>Wow I had no idea they were involved or for that long. Amazing.

</div>

beanbot2002 · June 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_supreme-court-upheld-the-health-care-law?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:136Discussion:ba46ee32-5673-4989-9d7a-54b1d451a091Post:375f3ec5-7ce0-46e3-b7dd-52905bb5138c">Re: Supreme Court upheld the health care law</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Supreme Court upheld the health care law : Wow I had no idea they were involved or for that long. Amazing.
Posted by danser55[/QUOTE]

My dad was summonsed, so to speak, to DC by the head of HHS (can't remember her name) and Ted Kennedy back in 1977. Up until then he had opened, and run, Su Clinica (a community health center dedicated to providing health care to the under and uninsured and especially to the migrant farm working community) down in Brownsville, Texas. He and my mom had been protesting in the fields against poor wages and no health care with the farm workers starting in the 60's. He was a part of the movement long before most of us were born :) They've been writing ACA since before I was born and fighting to provide quality and comprehensive health care to all. He's now the VP of National Association of Community Health Centers. My dream is to follow in his footsteps and continue his work. My step mom was the chair of the Health Law program at GWU for many years. She retired last year, but still teaches a few classes and does consult work for just about everyone. She was the head of Hillary's team of health care reform consultants and does work in other countries as well. She was on the Today show yesterday morning when they were discussing the (at that point-upcoming) SC decision.
If you can't tell, I'm like insanely proud of them.

Peaseblossom55 · June 2012

Wow I would be insanely proud as well!!!!

Supreme Court upheld the health care law

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