Making a big deal during the campaign about 74-year-old President Donald Trump’s attempt to repeal Obamacare in the Supreme Court, 77-year-old President-elect Joe Biden and his 56-year-old VP Kamala Harris used the issue to win the Nov. 3 election. Unlucky for Trump, he was on the wrong side of another issue contributing to his loss of the 2020 election. Whether Trump blames his loss on fraud or not, Biden and Harris used the attempt by the GOP to repeal Obamacare as an effective campaign issue. Like working to end Roe v. Wade, working actively to end the March 23, 2010 Affordable Care Act [ACA] was suicidal for Trump. Two years after former President Barack Obama signed the law into effect, Republicans petitioned the Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional because of the individual mandate. On June 28, 2012, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts ruled Obamacare was constitutional.
Yet repealing Obmacare became a cause célèbre for overly zealous Obama-haters, for no reason other that Democrats railroaded Republicans on a technicality in the Senate to pass the ACA in 2010. But instead of looking at the benefits of having some national health legislation, Republicans wasted too much time trying to get the law overturned. Trump was a victim of his own anti-Obama zealotry, winning him plaudits in conservative circles. Now a collection of GOP state Attorney General try one last time for repeal in the U.S. Supreme Court. Why the Supreme Court wasted its time with this case is anyone’s guess. Making their arguments on Zoom Conferencing to the Supreme Court, it was like déjà vu all over again for Roberts, who ruled in 2012 that the penalty provision of the individual mandate fell into the category of a legal tax, something within Congress’ Article 1 authority.
When the U.S. Court of Appeals Eastern District of Louisiana ruled Dec. 18, 2019 that Obamacare’s individual mandate was unconstitutional, you knew it headed to the Supreme Court. So justices are tasked with deciding the “severability” question of the individual mandate, with GOP state Attorneys Generals arguing that the entire law must be struck down. Democrat Attorneys General argue that the individual mandate is in fact severable, leaving Obamacare intact while, letting the rest of the ACA continue. “It does seem fairly clear that the proper remedy would be to sever the mandate provision and leave the rest of the act in place,” Associate Justice Brett Kamanaugh said to Texas solicitor general Kyle Hawkins. Roberts already is on record with his June 28, 2012 ruling on the individual mandate penalty a tax. Now its looks like Roberts joins Kavanaugh in backing severability of the mandate.
When you think of how Trump and his fellow Obmaacare-hating Republicans wasted so much time on repealing the ACA, he would have won a lot more crossover voters and independents leaving Obamacare alone. But no, the GOP put its eggs in the Obamacare basket and got burned. Trump was confronted with Biden in the Oct. 22 debate about seeking to take health coverage away from 22 million citizens on Obamacare during a global pandemic. Trump gave Democrats great talking points in the campaign, not realizing that even conservative-leaning justices see no problem with keeping Obamacare intact, especially for the millions of American currently enrolled in the program. Trump offered only platitudes about what he’d do in the future to deal with an end to the ACA. Voters simply didn’t find the idea of ending government-subsidized health insurance appealing.
When you think about what Obamacare’s original intent, it was supposed to provide comprehensive government-subsidized medial insurance to the uninsured population with preexisting conditions. Obamacare changed age-old insurance laws discriminating against individuals seeking insurance with preexisting conditions. Employer-sponsored health care provides insurance to everyone with preexisting medical conditions as long as they were part of a group. Insurance industry opposed Obamacare because they didn’t think they could make enough profit insuring subscribers with preexisting medical problems. But insurance companies made adequate profits insuring groups where everyone got insured without questioning prior medial conditions. When Obama promised subscribers they could keep their own doctors, he didn’t understand how health insurance worked.
Many companies that originally offered Obamacare polices gave up on the program because they couldn’t find a way to make it profitable. Companies that survived went to a tightly controlled managed care model, with extreme gate keeping, to keep costs under control, forcing many subscribers to give up their old doctors, clinics, labs and hospitals. Obamacare today is a tightly controlled managed care system, similar to how medical groups handle Medicaid. “I think it’s hard for you to argue that Congress intended the entire act to fall if the mandate were struck down,” Roberts said. “Congress left the rest of the law intact . . . That seems to be compelling evidence on the question,” said Roberts, hinting on how he’d rule. Trump and the GOP can only kick themselves for turning Obamacare into an Election Year issue, letting Democrat run wild frightening off GOP-leaning voters.
