Category: Health Care

I could give a very long analysis of why the mandate to purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act is constitutional. But, I don’ t think there is mucn need to do so. Our judiciary has become so politicized that there is no telling what the Supreme Court would do and good reason to fear that the Republican majoritiy will do the wrong thing just because of the partisan makeup of the court. But from the point of view of constitutional law, no long analysis is reallyi needed. There are three good reasons that the mandate is constitutional aand each them is fairliy obvious. 1. The commerce clause has been broadly interpreted to allow Congress to regulate almost any industry and to subsidize the purcharse of any good. The mandate is a critical part of a new regulatory and subsidiy scheme. We can’t sensibly impose insurance company regulations that force companies to… Continue reading

Penn ACTION and our Executive Director, Marc Stier, led the Health Care For America Campaign in Pennsylvania, which was critical to enacting the Affordable Care Act in Washington. Here is an overview of the strategy and achievements of the biggest issue campaign in Pennsylvania history—Health Care For America Now. We mobilized Congressional champions for healthcare reform. Some of our members of the House—such as Allyson Schwartz, Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah, Joe Sestak, and Mike Doyle—and Senator Casey were long time supporters of health care reform. But in Washington, there is a huge step between an abstract commitment to some ideal and the hard, slogging work of moving legislation through Congress. So first task was to light a fire under potential champions for health care reform. This began during the election of 2008. We focused the election on the health care issue. And together with HCAN groups in 42 other states, we… Continue reading

The Patient Care and Affordable Care Act was not everything we progressives wanted. Many of us were distraught over losing something that is important to our vision of health care reform: a public option that would compete with private insurance and hold down health insurance costs. Make no mistake, that was, indeed a loss. But the public option was not the only important feature of the legislation we have been supporting. Indeed, while holding down costs are important to this country, the fundamental moral issue is making sure that everyone can get affordable health care. And, the legislation we won goes incredibly far to attaining that goal. The Affordable Care Act will take this country close to the ideal of making health care a right not a privilege. It will, over ten years, save perhaps 100,000 lives. It will reduce the suffering of millions of people. And it will save… Continue reading

Sometimes there is nothing that can do more harm than a really bad idea. An unwarranted fear of budget deficits threatens to stop economic recovery in its tracks and harm those who are suffering the worst effects of the great recession. Continue reading