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Millions risk losing cover as Justices take up Obamacare Challenge

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by rocketsjudoka, Feb 17, 2015.

  1. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    This piece shows how many residents could lose health insurance in states that are challenging the ACA on the basis of if the law can provide subsidies in states without their own exchanges. This move could backfire on the governors of these states if it ends up hurting their constituents. This also proves something that many supporters of the ACA said during the debate to pass the law and the early days of implementation. While the law seemed unpopular as more people used the law they would find the benefits from it very helpful.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...97f6aa-ae50-11e4-ad71-7b9eba0f87d6_story.html

    Millions at risk of losing coverage as justices take up challenge to Obamacare

    Erin Meredith, a fifth-generation Republican who lives in Austin, was no fan of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which she considered just another wasteful government handout. She didn’t sign up for a health plan until late last year, when she felt she had no other choice.

    By then, Meredith, who is 37 and has two children, had gotten divorced and lost the insurance provided through her husband. Her new job, as an office manager for a roofing company, didn’t offer benefits. About the same time, she learned that her headaches and fatigue were the result of a rare condition that affects the oxygen level in her blood. She couldn’t afford to spend thousands of dollars on doctor’s visits, and her desperation slowly turned to panic.

    In November, at a friend’s urging, Meredith looked for a health plan on the federal online marketplace. With an income of about $30,000 a year, she discovered she qualified for a government subsidy of $132 a month. Her premium would be $89 a month.

    Now that she has coverage, she doesn’t want to lose it. “I can still feed my kids and put gas in my car,” she said. “I’m not trying to go to Cancun or carry a Michael Kors bag. I drive a 2009 Mazda, and I’m just trying to make it in my little apartment and not be on government assistance.”

    Meredith is one of about 6 million people whose subsidized insurance hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court takes up a case that poses the most serious challenge to the Affordable Care Act since the court found the law constitutional more than two years ago.

    The plaintiffs in King v. Burwell insist that people who buy coverage on the federal exchange are not entitled to subsidies, noting that the law says financial help is available for those who enroll through exchanges “established by the State.” The Obama administration argues that Congress clearly intended to help everyone who qualifies for it. The oral arguments are scheduled for March 4.

    About the only thing both sides agree on is that the subsidies are critical to the health-care law, whose second open enrollment season ended Sunday. If the Supreme Court bars subsidies for people in 34 states, some say, the law will unravel and the number of uninsured will soar. Others say that the White House and Congress may come up with a solution. And still others say that at least some states will rush to set up exchanges. But any alternative would raise a host of legal and practical questions and could be difficult to implement.

    Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have created their own exchanges, but three of them — Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon — are having technical problems, so they are using the federal exchange and Web site, HealthCare.gov. The remaining 34 states, including Texas, rely to varying degrees on the federal exchange. Eighty-seven percent of people who have signed up in these states are eligible for subsidies, according to the administration. The average amount is $268 a month, which lowers the premium by 72 percent.

    “If they’re not going to participate in Obamacare and I’m not going to have these financial benefits, which will force me to pay $220 a month for coverage, do you know if Greg Abbott, our governor, has any plan to offer something comparable?” Meredith asked in an e-mail. “I understand and support his efforts to put Washington back in its place. I just don’t want that to come at the cost of hard-working Texans and their ability to maintain medical coverage.”

    Like Meredith, many of the people who receive subsidies through the federal exchange are white and live in the South, according to a recent Urban Institute analysis. Half have full-time jobs. Many live in states such as Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas — states led by Republican officials who oppose the health-care law and have balked at setting up their own exchanges. Another big group lives in the Midwest, in states such as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin.

    The health law offers subsidized private insurance to people who can’t get coverage through their job, Medicaid or Medicare. In many cases, people receiving subsidies work as day-care aides, waiters, bartenders and retail clerks. Some are self-employed or early retirees. To qualify for subsidies, they must earn between $11,500 and $46,680 a year as individuals, or between $25,850 and $95,400 for a family of four. In most cases, the payments, which are referred to as tax credits, go directly from the federal government to insurance companies.
    more at link.
     
  2. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    You mean to tell me that there are some people who want to keep free government handouts? YOU DON'T SAY!!

    Come on judoka you fell for the biased article's manipulation technique far too easily.
     
  3. mc mark

    mc mark Contributing Member

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    Can't wait to hear republican congressmen explain to their constituents why they have to lose their healthcare.
     
  4. Bobbythegreat

    Bobbythegreat Member
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    Because a garbage law was pushed through congress without anyone who voted on it actually knowing what was in the bill?
     
  5. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    I'm pretty sure the quote from Pelosi was we have to pass the bill to find out what's in it.

    One of America's truly disgraceful political displays.
     
  6. mc mark

    mc mark Contributing Member

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    Yeah, you run with that and explain to a family who has affordable coverage for the first time in their lives why their coverage is being taken away.

    I'm sure they'll understand
     
  7. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    How about we got responsible health care reform instead of the democrats doing anything they can to shove Obamacare down our throats?
     
  8. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    Free government handouts aka free healthcare... Our system isn't even close to that level. Go ask them lazy Canadians and Norwegians about free government "handouts".
     
  9. mc mark

    mc mark Contributing Member

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    Let's hear it
     
  10. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    I am actually quite curious what "responsible" healthcare reform is according to you.
     
  11. larsv8

    larsv8 Contributing Member

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    Mission accomplished fox news. An army of morons voting against thier own self interest. Literally the dumbest people imaginable.
     
  12. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Contributing Member

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    Texxx will say that these voters are just being altruistic and believe in hard work ethic and no "handouts". I'm quite sure it's just because they are low information voters.
     
  13. Remii

    Remii Member

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    Send another few billion dollars to a foreign country for aid and pass the open carry law and all will be forgiven.
     
  14. rhadamanthus

    rhadamanthus Contributing Member

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    That article is just full of crazy-hilarious in a way that only America could be capable of.
     
  15. mc mark

    mc mark Contributing Member

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    This is just too damn funny! :grin:

    Like I said can't wait to hear republican congressmen explain to their constituents why they have to lose their healthcare.

    Senate GOP Leaders Endorse Bill To Extend Obamacare Subsidies To 2017

    WASHINGTON — The Senate's top five Republican leaders have cosponsored legislation to extend until 2017 the Obamacare insurance subsidies that may be struck down by the Supreme Court this summer.

    The legislation, offered by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), one of the most politically vulnerable Senate incumbents in 2016, would maintain the federal HealthCare.gov tax credits at stake in King v. Burwell through the end of August 2017.

    The bill was unveiled this week with 29 other cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his four top deputies, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), John Thune (R-SD), John Barrasso (R-WY) and Roy Blunt (R-MO). Another cosponsor is Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the conference's electoral arm.

    Such a move would seek to protect the GOP from political peril in the 2016 elections when Democrats would try to blame the party for stripping subsidies — and maybe insurance coverage — from millions of Americans in three dozen states. A defeat for the Obama administration in a King ruling would likely create havoc across insurance markets and pose a huge problem for Republicans, many of whom have been pushing the Supreme Court to nix the subsidies.
     
  16. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Contributing Member
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    I think many Republicans in Congress see the writing on the wall and will change the law even if the USSC decides against the subsidies. The ACA is gradually doing what Obama and the proponents said it was. As more and more people use it the more popular it will get.
     
  17. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Pretty general statement about all bills

    No one *IN* congress seems to neither read nor write any bills anymore

    Rocket River
     
  18. pirc1

    pirc1 Contributing Member

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    We should get rid of Medicare as well. What is so bad about getting health insurance for people in this country?
     
  19. ApolloRLB

    ApolloRLB Member

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    What specifically would you consider responsible health care reform?
     
  20. peleincubus

    peleincubus Member

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    i dont get it. how is so much money poured into war and military ok. but people be so opposed to giving basic healthcare to people that need it so they can provide for their families etc.

    sigh republicans.
     

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