Posts tagged healthcare reform

All right, y’all, let’s get cracking on the broccoli mandate now.

squashed: via The Heritage Foundation Congress: Be careful to go to the right part of the Heritage Foundation’s site. If you type in that address wrong, you’ll get to the other part of the Heritage Foundation’s site where they promote All of Obamacare. If you do that, you’ll get your talking points all wrong. All I know is that if I worked for an organization who first promoted the individual mandate, what I’d be doing now is writing op-eds about how awesome it is.

squashed:

via The Heritage Foundation

Congress: Be careful to go to the right part of the Heritage Foundation’s site. If you type in that address wrong, you’ll get to the other part of the Heritage Foundation’s site where they promote All of Obamacare. If you do that, you’ll get your talking points all wrong.

All I know is that if I worked for an organization who first promoted the individual mandate, what I’d be doing now is writing op-eds about how awesome it is.

foundry.org

Bloomberg:

The U.S. Supreme Court should uphold a law requiring most Americans to have health insurance if the justices follow legal precedent, according to 19 of 21 constitutional law professors who ventured an opinion on the most-anticipated ruling in years.

Only eight of them predicted the court would do so.

This Russian-novel-length book is about the Supreme Court’s tendency to mirror public opinion in its decisions despite being completely and intentionally immune to the broader electorate. I won’t pretend to completely understand what’s in front of the court today. One thing, however, is worth pointing out. Though healthcare reform is not wildly popular, the things that it actually does are. As Michael Hiltzik of Los Angeles Times reported, “most of the provisions [in the Act] win overwhelming public support when they’re explained to respondents and polled individually.” Elsewhere, Robert Barnes predicted in Washington Post that the Court’s ruling could hinge on public opinion and the current political climate.

This Russian-novel-length book is about the Supreme Court’s tendency to mirror public opinion in its decisions despite being completely and intentionally immune to the broader electorate.

I won’t pretend to completely understand what’s in front of the court today. One thing, however, is worth pointing out. Though healthcare reform is not wildly popular, the things that it actually does are. As Michael Hiltzik of Los Angeles Times reported, “most of the provisions [in the Act] win overwhelming public support when they’re explained to respondents and polled individually.” Elsewhere, Robert Barnes predicted in Washington Post that the Court’s ruling could hinge on public opinion and the current political climate.

Pro tip on healthcare reform: Don’t say or write that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. That is the issue in front of the Court at this very moment. Something is only unconstitutional after the Court says that it is, and that same thing is completely and utterly constitutional up until then. If you think the Court will find the law unconstitutional, or if you think the Court should find the law unconstitutional but ultimately will not, then say so. Those can be perfectly reasonable positions. But you, blogger on the internet/pundit on the teevee/writer with a byline, do not get to decide what is and is not constitutional. Using words improperly doesn’t make you seem like the most reliable source on an issue wrought with nuance and complexity.

Regarding the individual mandate

This lengthy chain prompted me to ask someone a question about it.

Here is some background on what I was babbling about.

For whatever it’s worth, I think when it hears arguments next year, the Supreme Court will decide that no one has standing to contest the individual mandate because it will not yet have been in effect at that time. Healthcare reform’s individual mandate, as of now, commences in 2014.

BREAKING: Federal court dismisses two suits that claimed Obama health care overhaul was unconstitutional

brooklynmutt

ThinkProgress: Media Continues To Treat Anti-Health Care Decisions As More Important Than Pro-Health Care Decisions: “The news-consuming public doesn’t necessarily follow the details of these legal developments, and Americans find important what the media tells them is important. With that in mind, it seems very likely the public has been left with the impression that the health care law is legally dubious and struggling badly in the courts because that’s what news organizations have told them to believe — rulings the right likes get trumpeted; rulings the left likes get downplayed.”

ThinkProgress: Media Continues To Treat Anti-Health Care Decisions As More Important Than Pro-Health Care Decisions:

“The news-consuming public doesn’t necessarily follow the details of these legal developments, and Americans find important what the media tells them is important. With that in mind, it seems very likely the public has been left with the impression that the health care law is legally dubious and struggling badly in the courts because that’s what news organizations have told them to believe — rulings the right likes get trumpeted; rulings the left likes get downplayed.”

50 U.S. Health Care Statistics That Will Absolutely Astonish You

"British fear 'American-style' healthcare system"