I am not a healthcare nerd, but when I heard the news that the Trump administration was going to decline to defend it...that is exactly what I thought.
>>Did the Trump administration kill Obamacare? No, but it may have just put this terrible law on life support. It’s up to the courts to decide what happens next.<<
Excellent analysis, but I just wonder what the courts could do. Without the tax, it will collapse on itself.
Now there is a lot of junk in oozocare but the bulk of it is unsustainable.
It sounds to me like Trump is keeping another one of his campaign promises. Other than his promise that we would get tired of winning, he is doing quite well.
Does anyone remember when Obama/Holder declined to defend the Defense of Marriage Act?
Yes, it is unusual for the federal government to roll over and not defend existing law. But, Obama was a pioneer in this regard.
Yeah, Roberts avoided the issue that it was not just a tax but a mandate attached
Those ridiculously high bronze plan prices are what have allowed us to not have HC insurance and not have to pay a penalty. At our age, (now 64), the rates are so high that we get the “unaffordability” exemption. That is, the cost of the bronze plan for just one of us is more than 8% of our income.
The foundations of his argument don't matter because it was all BS anyway. Do the Democrats still have info to use to blackmail Roberts? If so, he will find a new foundation and a new argument.
“Margot Sanger-Katz”- Never trust a woman with a hyphenated last name.
CC
Or to put it even more simply: when the penalty for breaking a law does not exist, enforcement does not exist, therefore...
Once again, and it is becoming tiresome: people confuse healthcare INSURANCE with actual healthcare. The former is a financial transaction with an insurance company, the latter refers to services provided by doctors, etc.
If you don’t have insurance, you can still go to a doctor and pay him for his services. My doctor actually gives close to a 50% discount for not having to file insurance forms, and for cash payment.
If you want to kill Obamacare, stop allowing waivers and terminate any existing waivers.
Care to bet on that?
Congress would almost certainly be forced to pass a new — and hopefully better — law to replace Obamacare, one that would grant power to the states to determine the best method for helping people with pre-existing conditions and lower-income families
Don't they need one first?
The collapse of the ACA is an event to be both celebrated and feared. We will rejoice when Obama’s signature accomplishment dies but we may be terrified of what Congress comes up with as a modification or replacement to the law.
Yeah, but a bunch of those millions are 26 - 35 year olds who don't think they need insurance yet. You know, the healthy young folks who were supposed to pay for the older sick folks.
Its only really a start and it wont bring back all the doctors who quit over all that socialist crap obama and democrats foisted on the American People
The administration made the right decision. I would like to see this more often.
Obamacare was always unconstitutional. Roberts knew it. That’s why he had to distort and twist the law to make it fit within constitutional bounds. (BTW, on page 15 of his opinion, Roberts writes that the mandate cannot be considered a tax.)
It will be interesting to see how Roberts twists his own twisting of teh law to try to maintain a faux constitutionality.