Tag Archives: King v. Burwell

Antonin Scalia, R.I.P.

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Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died on Saturday, practiced a constitutional conservatism that is out-of-step with today's Right. [Credit: lifenews.com]

Supreme Court Jus­tice Antonin Scalia, who died on Sat­ur­day, prac­ticed a con­sti­tu­tion­al con­ser­vatism that is out-of-step with today’s Right. [Cred­it: lifenews.com]

The arc of con­ser­vatism’s decline was traced in the course of a few hours last Sat­ur­day. That after­noon we learned of the pass­ing of a gen­uine con­sti­tu­tion­al con­ser­v­a­tive, Antonin Scalia. Hours lat­er, we endured anoth­er GOP debate dur­ing which pro­fessed con­ser­v­a­tives trad­ed barbs and insults, now con­sid­ered a suit­able sub­sti­tute for char­ac­ter and sub­stance by a large swath of Repub­li­can vot­ers. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare’s Next Chapter

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Chief Justice John Roberts ' opinion in King v. Burwell betrayed widely-held misconceptions about health insurance markets. [Credit: Human Events]

Chief Jus­tice John Roberts ’ opin­ion in King v. Bur­well repeat­ed wide­ly-held mis­con­cep­tions about health insur­ance mar­kets.  Con­ser­v­a­tives should take note. [Cred­it: Human Events]

“The Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act grew out of a long his­to­ry of failed health insur­ance reform.” Chief Jus­tice John Roberts, in uphold­ing Oba­macare subsidies.

Oba­macare is the newest chap­ter in that long his­to­ry of failed health insur­ance reform.  Con­ser­v­a­tives who hope one day to replace it would do well to learn from its errors and con­ceits. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Obamacare Has Reduced Uninsured By Nearly 8 Million

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A fresh government study has found that Obamacare has so far reduced the number of uninsured by eight million. [Credit: publicbroadcasting.net]

A fresh gov­ern­ment study has found that Oba­macare has so far reduced the num­ber of unin­sured by eight mil­lion. [Cred­it: publicbroadcasting.net]

The num­ber of unin­sured peo­ple declined by near­ly eight mil­lion dur­ing the first nine months of 2014, reduc­ing their ranks to 37.2 mil­lion, accord­ing to an analy­sis of data released late last week by the Nation­al Cen­ter for Health Sta­tis­tics (NCHS).

The survey’s find­ings con­flict with a report issued last month by the RAND Cor­po­ra­tion, which esti­mat­ed that the num­ber of unin­sured fell by 16.9 mil­lion since Obamacare’s imple­men­ta­tion [sub­scrip­tion required].  The RAND study put the num­ber of unin­sured at 25.8 mil­lion, near­ly 12 mil­lion few­er than the NCHS esti­mate. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Is Obamacare What We Deserve?

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Many who signed up for Obamacare coverage

Some who signed up for Oba­macare cov­er­age had been unin­sured for years.  That cov­er­age could unrav­el if the Supreme Court rules next month that the Admin­is­tra­tion unlaw­ful­ly sub­si­dized their cov­er­age. [Cred­it: Mia­mi Herald]

For 20 years, I was afraid.  Afraid of get­ting sick and not hav­ing health insur­ance.  But when I got can­cer, I final­ly had a health plan that I could afford.  With­out it, I wouldn’t be here…I’ll always remem­ber how afford­able health care saved my life.  I believe every­one deserves the same chance I had.  Don’t you?  Julie, the pro­tag­o­nist of a recent ad pro­mot­ing Obamacare

The Supreme Court next month will issue a rul­ing that could result in Julie los­ing the health insur­ance cov­er­age she feels she deserves. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Let States Exchange Obamacare For Something Better

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Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper established an Obamacare state exchange that is now "teetering," according to a state official. [Credit: mnginteractive.com]

Col­orado Gov­er­nor John Hick­en­loop­er estab­lished an Oba­macare state exchange that is now “tee­ter­ing,” accord­ing to a state offi­cial. [Cred­it: mnginteractive.com]

In the 34 states that did not estab­lish Oba­macare exchanges, Gov­er­nors ner­vous­ly await a Supreme Court rul­ing that could throw their health insur­ance mar­kets into chaos. Mean­while, many of the Gov­er­nors who did estab­lish exchanges are regret­ting their decision.

More than five years after its enact­ment, Oba­macare has proven a bit­ter brew for many states.  Nowhere is this more evi­dent than in health care exchanges.  Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Why Obamacare Subsidies Matter

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Protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court yesterday as judges heard arguments over the legality of Obamacare subsidies. [Credit: AP]

Pro­test­ers gath­ered out­side the Supreme Court yes­ter­day as judges heard argu­ments over the legal­i­ty of Oba­macare sub­si­dies. [Cred­it: AP]

The future of Oba­macare hangs on the Supreme Court’s rul­ing in King v. Bur­well for a very good rea­son: unless health insur­ance is sub­si­dized, mil­lions of Amer­i­cans don’t want it, even if they can afford it. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

What We Know And Don’t Know About Obamacare

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The White House spent billions last year on efforts like this to promote Obamacare enrollment. How will they do this year? [Credit: Washington Post]

The White House spent bil­lions last year on efforts like this to pro­mote Oba­macare enroll­ment. How will they do this year? [Cred­it: Wash­ing­ton Post]

If you are a law­ful res­i­dent of the Unit­ed States and you lack health insur­ance today, it’s almost cer­tain­ly your fault.  You can’t blame your employ­er, the gov­ern­ment or the insur­ance com­pa­nies.  It’s on you.

That is the last­ing achieve­ment of Oba­macare, whose sec­ond open enroll­ment peri­od began yes­ter­day. Gone are the days when peo­ple with pre-exist­ing med­ical con­di­tions could not find afford­able cov­er­age.   Whether the ends of this achieve­ment, which are unde­ni­ably good, jus­ti­fy the means its sup­port­ers employed to win its enact­ment remains a mat­ter of con­tro­ver­sy. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The President, His Critics And the Politics of Impatience

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What do these two men have in common? More than you might think. [Credit: Politico]

What do these two men have in com­mon? More than you might think. [Cred­it: Politico]

“But what I’m not going to do is just wait.  I think it’s fair to say that I’ve shown a lot of patience…But what we can’t do is just keep on wait­ing.”  Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, Novem­ber 5, 2014

The Con­sti­tu­tion offers no rem­e­dy for pres­i­den­tial impa­tience. Pres­i­dents, Mem­bers of Con­gress and judges are some­times con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly required to “just keep on wait­ing.”  And that is some­thing office­hold­ers of both polit­i­cal par­ties seem increas­ing­ly unwill­ing to do.  When it comes to cir­cum­vent­ing the rules to achieve the polit­i­cal objec­tives of the moment, the Pres­i­dent and some of his most stri­dent con­ser­v­a­tive foes are soulmates.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →