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Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare Subsidies
From the Associated Press:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide tax subsidies underpinning President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, rejecting a major challenge to the landmark law in a ruling that preserves health insurance for millions of Americans.
The justices said in a 6-3 ruling that the subsidies that 8.7 million people currently receive to make insurance affordable do not depend on where they live, as opponents contended.
Only Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Alito dissented.
Stay tuned to Ricochet for commentary on the ruling, including an appearance from Richard Epstein on today’s forthcoming Ricochet Podcast.
Published in Law
On a crass political level we Republicans did dodge a bullet with this ruling. How many years have we heard that our replacement package was two or three months away? Regular Ricochetti know of my family’s situation with mental health coverage, and whenever I’ve read a commenter say “I don’t need mental health coverage or birth control or maternity care…” I’ve ground my teeth. So now we have a chance to persuade folks our ideas are better. What’s our plan?
It depends who it is, but best case I’d put it at 5% probability of success. But one never knows. It is hard for me to think that the ACA will be reversed, but I’m also not sure this is a uniquely low point in our history, and not at all sure that it’s time to do all that having a revolution would entail. People are throwing around that term as if they’re eager for the streets to run red with blood.
I didn’t mean immanently, but that white bloc-vote for Republicans will have to get even more solid in decades to come.
Our plan is easy – subsidize catastrophic health care insurance policies for those who can’t afford them, so that people who get hit with medical bills beyond a certain threshold (say $10,000/anum, off the top of my head, possibly on a sliding scale based on income or assets) don’t get wiped out financially. Expand HSAs. After that, deregulate, deregulate, deregulate. Don’t mandate coverage for easily planned-for expenses like birth control and annual checkups.
The whole thing can probably be done in 10 pages of legislation.
It was only a few years ago, during the first GOP Presidential debates leading up to the 2012 election, that candidate after candidate praised Roberts and Alioto, and promised to name similar Justices if he (or she) was elected.
We could not and cannot trust trimmers and crowd-pleasers like George or Jeb Bush to nominate movement conservatives to The Court.
If the GOP wins the White House in 2016 there must be no “stealth” conservative nominees, no Harriet Miers, no Anthony Kennedys or Sandra Day O’Connors. We want belligerent partisans who will never give us cause to worry about how they will vote – who will be as reliably activist conservative as Kagan, Ginsburg and Sotomajor are liberal.
This decision, along with the upcoming decision on marriage, eliminates Jeb Bush from consideration for the Republican nomination.
Not so sure…even though I would lose my vote, I would be better off if the other women don’t vote. Felt that way ever since they swooned over the Gore Tipper kiss.
Time to think about term limits. Judge Roberts is admirable for thinking the people should not be protected from their dumb choices. The problem is, he is not living up to that ideal because it would appear he is ignoring the plain language of the law. If the people cannot rely on a plain reading of the law, well, then…what are the people to make of that fact.