On June 28th the Supreme Court ruled the Affordable Care Act constitutional and will be upheld as a law. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the bill, and the total was 5 for and 4 against. Immediately after the final decision was announced, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, announced the Republicans will be scheduling a vote to repeal health care reform on July 11th. This allows the House a recess before voting on the controversial bill.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold ObamaCare is a crushing blow to patients throughout the country,” said Cantor. “ObamaCare has failed to keep the President’s basic promise of allowing those who like their health care to keep it, while increasing costs and reducing access to quality care for patients.”
The Republicans currently hold the majority in the House, giving them a strong possibility to repeal the health care reform bill if all Republicans vote in favor.
This bill has been an extremely controversial case, drawn along partisan lines with not one positive comment resounding from the Republican Party. President Obama’s campaign itself has publicly announced its dissatisfaction with Chief Justice Roberts’s decision to rule the individual mandate as a tax rather than a penalty.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), often referred to as “Obamacare”, is the major health care reform law passed in 2010. The case before the Supreme Court specifically examined whether the individual mandate portion of the legislation was, in fact, constitutional.
The individual mandate is one of the most contentious provisions of the bill. It requires all individuals not covered by employer or government-sponsored insurance plans to maintain minimal, essential health insurance coverage or else pay a penalty, unless exempted by religious beliefs or financial hardship. Without the individual mandate, many consider health care reform to be impossible to implement without substantial increases in health care fees.
There are multiple reasons why a Republican individuals want to vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, ranging from the traditional anti big-government and disagreement on social programs to specific clauses in the bill. Many are claiming that despite the President’s claims, the bill would not actually allow patients to continue using the same doctors as before as promised. Others claim that not everyone can afford the universal health care system and that it would put American in financially weaker positions.
Then again, others don’t really care about this debate, at all. A recent study just put out by Pew Research Center said that the politically aware all across the board as dull and annoyed with this year's election and that independents overwhelmingly want to move on from the issue.
“The number of respondents finding the election “dull” increased in June, too. Many find the campaigns too long, albeit important,” said IVN Editor Kym Bays.
For topics as important as universal health care, why is the American population so apathetic? Because partisan bickering helps no one, and as evidenced by polling data, Americans are uninterested in such behavior. When neither party is ever happy with the outcome of a law, maybe its time to stop fixing the legislation and start fixing cross-party collaboration.