The Supreme Court will consider Obamacare's constitutionality — and the outcome could bring 'total chaos'

Yahoo News ^ | March 2, 2020 | Adriana Belmonte

[John W]

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal case on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, that could potentially invalidate the entire law.

On Dec. 15, 2018, a Texas judge ruled that Obamacare’s individual mandate was unconstitutional. Judge Reed O’Connor agreed with the plaintiffs who argued that the lack of a penalty invalidated the “individual mandate” provision of the law, and if that part of the law was now invalid, then the whole law was.

Democratic states and the House of Representatives appealed the decision, and the case made it all the way up to the Supreme Court in a case titled California v. Texas. If the conservative-majority justices find the individual mandate unconstitutional in the June 2021 ruling, that could mean all of the ACA is unconstitutional.

“There could be essentially total chaos,” Cynthia Cox, director for the Program on the Affordable Care Act at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told Yahoo Finance. “There’s no replacement plan that is ready to go and so essentially what would happen next is possibly over a short period of time, or possibly immediately, we would start seeing the ACA being unwound. And the immediate effect would be that literally tens of millions of people could lose coverage and also even more people could have other changes to their coverage.”

“What [would] happen is we’re going to go back to a marketplace that we had before the ACA,” Gerald Kominski, a professor in health policy and management at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, told Yahoo Finance. “Roll back the clock 11 years. First of all, there are no longer subsidies for people to buy health insurance in exchanges. Exchanges go away.”

[lurk]

Not chaos. Just a large scale adjustment back to 2009. Sort of like having to change planes when one has a mechanical issue.

[9422WMR]

Free market! Back around 2005, I was looking for health insurance for my children (divorced from mother) I found a great policy for both kids with no deductible and less than $100 per month. But of course she abused it like a credit card thinking you win a prize if you take your kids to the doctor every week! 🤦🏻‍♂️ But even though that policy was cancelled another was easily obtained. And they were cheaper than through my employer. That was the free market. Obamacare destroyed that.

[Reily]

They force us to finance a retirement supplement call Social Security. I remember reading an article soon after the Roberts ruling where the author of the article “deconstructed” Roberts thinking and came to the conclusion that he was basing his argument on past rulings that upheld the constitutionality of Social Security. (Which to me is as dubious as upholding Dred Scott!) However this guys take on Robert's argument made sense on how (maybe why!) he made the case.

[A Navy Vet]

"We don’t have a free market in medicine and haven’t for decades. Government already controls an enormous amount of pricing through Medicare and Medicaid patients."

I disagree. As an employer of 3 small companies, I had many options within the free market to choose which I thought best for my employees and companies regarding coverage. Yes, they were over-regulated, but I had the choice. Medicare and Medicaid are different animals. You're talking apples and oranges.

[albie]

The free market maybe sort of kinda can save it

[Sacajaweau]

yeh.........medicare for everyone

[A Navy Vet]

"Actually there is what is known as Catastrophic Care Insurance that is widely available from private firms at a lower cost with no humongous deductible."

Do those types of policies still exist? I thought they were eliminated under Obamacare.

[FewsOrange]

“Correction, I don’t want them INVOLVED in my health care.”

With Tricare, Medicare and Medicaid, government has been involved in health care since way before Obamacare.

[1Old Pro]

https://mikejohnson.house.gov/media/in-the-news/republican-plan-health-care

[17th Miss Regt]

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal case on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, that could potentially invalidate the entire law.

If the law is invalidated then blacks will be put back in chains, homosexuals will be killed, women will lose the vote and be forced back into the kitchen, the environment will be destroyed by global warming, and cats and dogs will live together!

[Bonemaker]

“Not sure how this affects Robert’s thinking.”

Not as much as Obama threats.

[DoodleDawg]

Kominski added that it would “be up to the court to determine whether or not the ruling is immediately effective or whether or not there is an opportunity. For example, most insurance enrollment takes place at the beginning of the calendar year and extends through that year. It could be that the eligibility would be allowed to continue for a year, but it’s possible that it could be effective immediately.”

If something is unconstitutional then it's unconstitutional immediately. No lead in time.

[DoodleDawg]

I DON'T WANT them in charge of my healthcare.

Don't hit 65 then.

[Mr. K]

There is no consequence of repealing Obamacare that is worse than Obamacare itself

[bert]

I’m pretty sure there has been a revival.

Here’s just one link

https://quotes.healthcare.com/catastrophic/?SRC=30&subid=NT.1.1.30.1.1.00.2.0Y.2&pubid=catastrophic%20care%20insurance%20policies&utm_content=p&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=catastrophic%20health%20insurance&iv=__iv_p_2_a_268819078_g_1291926331714621_k_kwd-80745509545276:loc-4125_w_catastrophic%20health%20insurance_d_c_q_catastrophic%20care%20insurance%20policies_m_p_h_84617_c_80745439482412_n_o_z_2_vi__&msclkid=25891c5835841c5892064206b00895b3

[DoodleDawg]

Thanks to Democrats sitting on their hands.

Why should the Democrats be doing anything?

[aimhigh]

Never trust any article whose headline includes the words, ‘may’ ,’might’ or ‘could’.

[DoodleDawg]

Yes, and it will become law next year when we take back the house.

Sure we do, and sure it will.

[Bonemaker]

“...If the conservative-majority justices find the individual mandate unconstitutional in the June 2021 ruling...”

What a beyond useless disgusting institution. Any remotely sane rational competent group of nine people would have this settled by happy hour today.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Don’t worry, John Roberts will save it again for the Uniparty.

Yes especially after he spends the next few months reading Chicken Little articles like THAT one.