Why Is The Aca Misunderstood
Oftentimes, how Obamacare is discussed and framed has led to misunderstanding of the ACA.
The legislation is a series of provisions, opening up a marketplace of different tiered plans from which citizens can choose. Its not a health insurance plan in and of itself, the way some anti-ACA-leaning media outlets tend to depict it.
When asked why there tends to be so much confusion over what exactly Obamacare is, John McDonough, DrPH, MPA, a professor of public health practice in the Department of Health Policy & Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of executive and continuing professional education, said its because American healthcare is confusing to begin with.
Ask Americans to explain Medicare and or Medicaid, and you will observe at least as much befuddlement as with the ACA. Our U.S. healthcare system is the most complicated and impenetrable to understand and make sense of on the planet, McDonough told Healthline.
He should know. McDonough was there at the beginning.
He worked on the development and passage of the ACA in the role of a senior advisor on national health reform to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
In the early days around 2010, when people would complain to me that they didnt understand the ACA, I would ask them politely how well they understand the U.S. health system in general, he said.
Affordable Health Care For America Act
| This article is part of a serieson |
The Affordable Health Care for America Act was a bill that was crafted by the United States House of Representatives of the 111th United States Congress on October 29, 2009. The bill was sponsored by Representative Charles Rangel. At the encouragement of the Obama administration, the 111th Congress devoted much of its time to enacting reform of the United States’ health care system. Known as the “House bill, HR 3962 was the House of Representatives’ chief legislative proposal during the health reform debate.
On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed an alternative health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act . In 2010, the House abandoned its reform bill in favor of amending the Senate bill ” rel=”nofollow”>reconciliation process) in the form of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
Obamacare Survives After Supreme Court Rejects Latest Republican Challenge
- The Supreme Court ruled against Texas and other Republican-led states seeking to strike down the Affordable Care Act in its latest test before the nation’s highest court.
- The top court voted 7-2 to reverse an appeals court ruling that had struck down the law’s individual mandate provision.
- Two of former President Donald Trump’s court picks, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, joined the majority in rejecting the Republican effort.
- President Joe Biden praised the ruling as a major victory and vowed to expand Obamacare.
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Thursday against Texas and other Republican-led states seeking to strike down Obamacare in the law’s latest test before the nation’s highest court.
The court reversed an appeals court ruling that had struck down the law’s individual mandate provision. Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined Justice Stephen Breyer’s opinion, as did Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
Breyer said Texas and the other states that challenged the law failed to show they were harmed by it.
“Neither the individual nor the state plaintiffs have shown that the injury they will suffer or have suffered is ‘fairly traceable’ to the ‘allegedly unlawful conduct’ of which they complain,” Breyer wrote.
Biden also vowed to expand Obamacare, a central promise of his presidential campaign.
The Supreme Court agreed in March 2020 to hear the case.
“What a day,” he added.
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Rep Christopher H Smith Of New Jersey
Smith is the only remaining Republican representing New Jersey, after Democrats flipped four seats in the Garden State in the midterms. Smith voted against the GOP health care plan in 2017. He also broke with his party on the tax overhaul, along with other lawmakers from high-tax states. Smith is not a DCCC target and is running for re-election in a district Trump carried by 15 points in 2016. Inside Elections rates his race Solid Republican.
Fact Check: How Many Gop Senators Voted To Repeal Obamacare
The United States Senate voted three times in July to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act]. All of the measures failed. Commenting on the apparent change of position among Republicans who voted against repeal on July 26, Senator Ben Sasse claimed, With just one exception, every member of the Republican majority already either voted for repeal or explicitly campaigned on repeal.
Is Sasse correct? Did every current Republican senator, except one, previously vote for or campaign on repeal of the Affordable Care Act?
Yes. With the exception of Sen. Susan Collins , all 49 current Republican senators who were in office in 2015 voted that year to repeal elements of the ACA . Seven Republican senators who were in office in 2015, including Collins, voted against a similar bill on July 26, 2017.
Senators John Neely Kennedy and Todd Young , both elected in 2016, campaigned to repeal the ACA. Sen. Luther Strange , appointed in 2017 and currently running in a special election, has also campaigned on repeal. All three senators voted to repeal the ACA on July 26.
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Rep Denver Riggleman Of Virginia
The Virginia freshman, a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, explained his vote partly as one to protect pre-existing conditions, which he said hit close to home for me and I campaigned on continuing healthcare coverage for those affected.
The healthcare system is broken and Obamacare is a major part of the problem, but we should proceed with caution as we try and fix it. This resolution certainly doesnt help solve the problem, but hopefully will allow us to have a productive discussion on healthcare, he said in an emailed statement.
Trump carried Rigglemans 5th District seat;by 11 points in 2016. Riggleman defeated Democrat Leslie Cockburn by 7 points last fall in a race that got some national attention. Democrats are not targeting him in 2020. Inside Elections rates his race Solid Republican.
Russia Sanctions Headed To Trump’s Desk Will He Sign
Some GOP senators worried the measure would go back to the House, where leaders would put it on the floor, pass it and send it to Trump who has said he would sign whatever lands on his desk when it comes to Republican-passed health care legislation.
Before the vote, at 10:43 p.m. ET, Trump was rooting them on in a tweet: “Go Republican Senators. Go!”
Afterward, it was a different story, with the president tweeting at 2:25 a.m. ET that those who voted no had “let the American people down.”
It’s somewhat ironic that McCain was the one to derail what seemed like a sure Trump victory . After all, Trump’s comments about the former prisoner of war were among the earliest to land the then-candidate in controversy.
“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said in 2015 of McCain. “He was a war hero, because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured. He’s been losing so long he doesn’t know how to win anymore.”
That was likely never lost on McCain.
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Democrats Sought To Put Gop Colleagues On Record With Symbolic Vote
Democratic congressional campaigns have already made health care an early focus of their 2020 messaging, and House Democrats bolstered that effort Wednesday with a symbolic vote that sought to once again put Republicans on record on the issue.
Eight Republicans sided with Democrats on the nonbinding resolution, which the House adopted, 240-186.;The measure condemned;the Trump administrations support for invalidating the 2010 health care law in its entirety.;The Department of Justice, in a new filing last week, backed a Texas judges decision to strike down the law.;
Three Republicans; New Yorks;Tom Reed and John Katko and Pennsylvanias Brian Fitzpatrick had voted in January to authorize the House general counsel to intervene in the lawsuit to defend the health care law. All three also voted for the resolution Wednesday.
One Democrat 15-term Minnesota Rep. Collin C. Peterson bucked his party and voted against the resolution. Hes one of the last Democrats remaining in the House who opposed the 2010 health care law and is likely the last Democrat who can hold his heavily agricultural 7th District seat.
Democrats were otherwise united in supporting the resolution, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched positive Facebook ads touting their vulnerable members votes to protect families with pre-existing conditions.
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What The Aca Means For You
The Affordable Care Act is perhaps the greatest overhaul ofthe US health-care system, and it will provide coverage for over 94% ofAmericans. In addition, one of its key reforms includes health coverage for adultswith pre-existing conditions, which generally had not been available up untilnow.
These great changes in health-care insurance can benefit you and your loved ones. However, it is still essential to find the best plans at the best price to ensure your family is properly covered.
To learn about the specific Obamacare-compliant health insurance plan options available to youplus see if you are eligible for a government subsidy to help pay for a plancompare ACA-compliant health insurance plans with eHealth today.
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Schumer: ‘we Can Work Together Our Country Demands It’
Until the end, passage on the Health Care Freedom Act, also dubbed the skinny repeal, was never certain. Even Republicans who voted for it disliked the bill.
The skinny bill as policy is a disaster. The skinny bill as a replacement for Obamacare is a fraud. The skinny bill is a vehicle to getting conference to find a replacement, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said at a Thursday evening news conference hours before the vote alongside fellow Republicans McCain, Ron Johnson and Bill Cassidy, before the details were released.
The skinny repeal was far from Republicans campaign promise of also rolling back Medicaid expansion, insurance subsidies, Obamacare taxes, and insurance regulations.
Many Republicans who did vote for it said they were holding their nose to vote for it just to advance the process into negotiations with the House of Representatives.
The legislation included a repeal of the individual mandate to purchase insurance, a repeal of the employer mandate to provide insurance, a one-year defunding of Planned Parenthood, a provision giving states more flexibility to opt out of insurance regulations, and a three-year repeal of the medical device tax. It also would have increased the amount that people can contribute to Health Savings Accounts.
Leigh Ann Caldwell is an NBC News correspondent.
Watch Sen John Mccain Cast ‘no’ Vote On ‘skinny’ Repeal
It isn’t clear what comes next, but the collapse of some insurance markets around the country serve as an incentive for Republicans and Democrats to hold hearings and fix the problems with health care.
Most Republicans never embraced the different iterations of legislation they crafted, nor the process by which it was constructed. Even on the last-ditch effort at a bare-bones bill, Republicans couldnt reach agreement. Over the past two days, many rejected a plan that would have partially repealed and replaced Obamacare and a measure that would have just repealed it. The repeal vote was the same bill that passed the Senate and the House in 2015 when former President Barack Obama vetoed it.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, stood against every version of the legislation even in the face of immense pressure. The Trump administration threatened to withhold federal resources from Alaska because of her opposition, according to the Alaska Daily News. Murkowski herself said the next day in response to the report that she would not characterize it as a “threat.”
“I sat there with Senator McCain. I think both of us recognize that its very hard to disappoint your colleagues,” Murkowski told NBC News after the vote. “And I know that there is disappointment because it was the three votes that Senator McCain, Senator Collins, and I cast that did not allow this bill to move forward. And that is difficult.”
“John McCain is a hero and has courage and does the right thing,” Schumer said.
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When Did Obamacare Start
The timeline of key events leading up to the passage of the Obamacare law began in 2009. Here is a list of those events, along with key provisions that went into place after the law was enacted.
- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a group of Democrats from the House of Representatives reveal their plan for overhauling the health-care system. Its called H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.
- ;Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, a leading supporter of health-care reform, dies and puts the Senate Democrats 60-seat supermajority required to pass a piece of legislation at risk.
- ;Democrat Paul Kirk is appointed interim senator from Massachusetts, which temporarily restores the Democrats filibuster-proof 60th vote.
- ;In the House of Representatives, 219 Democrats and one Republican vote for the Affordable Health Care for America Act, and 39 Democrats and 176 Republicans vote against it.
- In the Senate, 60 Democrats vote for the Senates version of the bill, called Americas Healthy Future Act, whose lead author is senator Max Baucus of California. Thirty-nine Republicans vote against the bill, and one Republican senator, Jim Bunning, does not vote.
Actions To Hinder Implementation
Under both ACA and the AHCA, CBO reported that the health exchange marketplaces would remain stable. However, Republican politicians took a variety of steps to undermine it, creating uncertainty that adversely impacted enrollment and insurer participation while increasing premiums. Concern of the exchanges became another argument for reforms. Past and ongoing Republican attempts to weaken the law have included:
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Rep Pete Stauber Of Minnesota
The freshman flipped a longtime Democratic seat;in northeast Minnesota that Trump had carried by 16 points in 2016. Its a largely white, working-class district, where Trumps populist appeal resonated. The former Duluth police officer ran a campaign ad last year about his son Issac, who has Down syndrome, and he talked about the importance of insurance companies covering pre-existing conditions. Democrats are not targeting this seat in 2020. Inside Elections rates the race Likely Republican.
Why Supporters Pushed For The Bill
- The PPACA addresses the needs of the 46 million uninsured Americans;
- strengthens the Medicare system by closing the donut hole in prescription coverage, and cutting waste and fraud while guaranteeing preventive care without co-pays;
- provides health insurance to low-income children;
- funds cutting-edge research into cures for diseases;
- gives patients the clout to challenge the decisions of health insurers and;
- increases access to care by making it impossible for insurers to shun the sick.
In the past, insurers either refused to cover patients suffering from pre-existing conditions, or charged them unaffordable premiums. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted shortly before the legislation passed: “If you’re a woman that’s a pre-existing condition; if you’re a woman of child-bearing age and you’ve had children that’s a pre-existing condition. If you can’t have children, it’s a pre-existing condition. If you have a C-section, it’s a pre-existing condition. A victim of domestic abuse, it’s a preexisting condition.”
Under the PPACA, Americans would no longer have to worry about being denied insurance. Pelosi urged her audience to “Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer, a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance. Or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risks, but not be job-locked because a child has a child has asthma or diabetes or someone in the family is bipolar “
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The House Votes To Repeal Obamacare
Republicans overcame an embarrassing early failure to pass their replacement for the Affordable Care Act with few votes to spare. Now, they await the political fallout.
For House Republicans, the burden of an unfulfilled campaign promise had simply become too much to bear alone.
And so on Thursday, after an embarrassing early failure and weeks of fits and starts, a narrow GOP majority passed legislation to partially repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act that even many of its supporters conceded was deeply flawed. The party-line vote was 217-213, with 20 Republicans voting against. The bill now goes to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain at best.
The American Health Care Act scraps the Obamacare mandates that people buy health insurance and that employers provide it, eliminates most of its tax increases, cuts nearly $900 billion from Medicaid while curtailing the programs expansion, and allows states to seek a waiver exempting them from the current laws crucial prohibition against insurers charging higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions. Conservatives complained that the bill did not fully repeal the 2010 law, while moderates blanched at its cuts to Medicaid and its weakening of its most popular consumer protections.
Attempts To Change Or Repeal
Read Ballotpedia’s fact check »
The Affordable Care Act was subject to a number of lawsuits challenging some of its provisions, such as the individual mandate and the requirement to cover contraception. Four of these lawsuits were heard by the United States Supreme Court, resulting in changes to the law and how it was enforced. In addition, since the law’s enactment, lawmakers in Congress have introduced and considered legislation to modify or repeal parts or all of the Affordable Care Act. Finally, between 2010 and 2012, voters in eight states considered ballot measures related to the law. This section summarizes the lawsuits, legislation, and state ballot measures that attempted to change, repeal, or impact enforcement of parts of the law.
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