June 25^th

The day we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. The Supreme Court, by a six to three majority, has affirmed The Affordable Care Act’s constitutional right to continue to exist. The issue concerned the elimination of some subsidies which if allowed, would have eliminated medical care for over six million Americans. Can you imagine the Republicans going into this 2016 election if this decision had come out the other way? What do you say to those six million Americans who now have no health care because you have fought against this law until the Supreme Court has finally agreed with you and millions now have no health insurance? Conservatives should be thankful that the Supreme Court ruled as they did.

But they are not thankful; they are certain that this battle is not over, and it probably isn’t. If the Republicans can keep control of the Congress and get a conservative President in 2016, then they could simply repeal ACA. They might not want to do that because many of ACA’s features are very popular; particularly being able to keep your children on your policy until they are 26, and being able to keep your insurance in spite of catastrophic health changes. Whatever Republicans might decide to replace ACA with, it had better have those issues covered. On the other hand the Republicans have had some time to produce an alternative health care plan and nothing they want to talk about has yet to materialize.

All of the Republican candidates who have commented on this issue have consistently lambasted the Court’s decision, some going so far as to forget that the Chief Justice, who sided with the six person majority, is by no stretch a liberal. He was appointed by President Bush and he is a very conservative justice. No matter, if you come down on the side of liberals in an issue like this then you must have been brainwashed. I think that Chief Justice Roberts might well have seen what a disastrous trap a different decision would have been for his party’s chances in 2016. But that would imply that SCOTUS could be swayed by political influences and we know from the Presidential election in 2004 when SCOTUS intervened in the Bush vs. Gore election that no such thing could happen!