How much do many conservatives hate federal health reform? Many Republican lawmakers are eyeing a Supreme Court case that could lead to millions of Americans losing health insurance they otherwise wouldn't be able to get or afford, Simon Maloy reports for Salon.
The case, King v. Burwell, includes the argument "that the wording of a single provision of the ACA prohibits the government from offering subsidies to consumers who purchase health insurance through the 36 state exchanges run by the federal government and that this was the intention of Congress when it wrote the legislation," Maloy writes. "If the plaintiffs win, the practical effect of the ruling would be to strip millions of people of the ability to pay for their health insurance."
"That’s no small consideration, given that these subsidies are saving the lives of people with serious illnesses who otherwise can’t afford insurance," Maloy writes. "Conservatives tend to dance around this and instead cast their support for similar cases as a high-minded commitment to 'enforcing the law as written' (or, more precisely, enforcing an absurdist interpretation of one provision of the law and ignoring the other provisions that contradict it). Getting rid of the Obamacare 'cancer' remains the most important consideration, and if a few million people have to lose the ability to pay for coverage . . . well, let’s just focus on what really matters." (Read more)
Fifty years ago, many Americans wondered why they ever listened to Sen. Joe McCarthy, the demagogue who saw a communist under every bed. We're going to have our own Joe McCarthy moment in a few years and wonder why we ever listed to Rush Limbaugh, Ted Cruz and others of their ilk.
ReplyDelete