![\"iheartobamacare_400px\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/r9f.352.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/iheartobamacare_400px.png?resize=400%2C104\")
First off, let me just say that I believe single payer is the way to go.\u00a0No system is perfect, but single payer delivers quality healthcare more equitably, efficiently, and cost-effectively.<\/p>\nFirst off, let me just say that I believe single payer is the way to go.\u00a0No system is perfect, but single payer delivers quality healthcare more equitably, efficiently, and cost-effectively.<\/p>\n
That said, I\u2019m a huge fan of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. Yes, its origins lie in conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute<\/a>, which promote market-based policies that privilege the profit motive.\u00a0Obamacare\u00a0does not go nearly far enough for many, including me.<\/p>\n Yet it\u2019s what could get through a political system that is sclerotic, controlled by monied interests, and held hostage by a Republican Party practically unhinged in its hatred of President Obama.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a profound success that more than 16 million Americans now have health insurance they couldn\u2019t before afford or couldn\u2019t get due to preexisting conditions. Obamacare is also slowing skyrocketing healthcare costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n My family has been among Obamacare\u2019s many beneficiaries:<\/p>\n For one thing, our kids have been\u00a0covered under my husband\u2019s employer-provided insurance until they turn 26. Since\u00a0Emma aged out last year, she\u2019s been fortunate to get\u00a0healthcare she could not have otherwise afforded. Pieced-together, low-wage employment is common for young people now:\u00a0Emma survives as an artist on part-time Russian translation work while also working in a restaurant. \u00a0Initially, Emma benefited from Medicaid expansion (again, she\u2019s lucky to live in a state that opted into this provision of the law). Now that she\u2019s a bit more stable economically, subsidies help her afford excellent health care through our state\u2019s health exchange. When our younger daughter, Ally, moves back this summer from Spain\u00a0(where she\u2019s enjoyed the benefits of national health care) she, too, will be able to find affordable health insurance.<\/p>\n Of course, since Ally\u2019s only 24, she could also still be covered under my husband\u2019s plan. Except that he\u2019s retiring in May! This, too, is something he never could have done before Obamacare. We\u2019ve both had cancer, which involves ongoing monitoring. I am self-employed, and there is no way we could have gotten individual insurance because of our pre-existing conditions\u2014a heinous denial of coverage that Obamacare outlaws.\u00a0 Now my husband can pursue other interests free from the burden of remaining tethered to a job simply because we need health insurance we otherwise couldn\u2019t get. And somebody else who needs and wants a job can have the position my husband will soon vacate.<\/p>\n Sure, we\u2019ll pay a lot\u00a0for coverage on our own.\u00a0We’re too well off to qualify for subsidies, which is\u00a0as it should be–they are designed to help those less fortunate. Of course, we\u2019ll still benefit from annual out-of-pocket caps, free preventive services, and the knowledge that we and tens of millions of other Americans will no longer have to worry about the Russian roulette that used to be national policy.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014I know that Obamacare is far from a panacea, and that for those who are healthy and whose incomes are a little but not a lot above the subsidized level, health insurance is far from affordable. For some it\u2019s become more expensive. And because our system has engendered such a complicated law, tax season has become even more migraine-inducing than usual.<\/p>\n Yet we should be careful not to blame Obamacare for what had been happening for years anyway\u2014premiums skyrocketing, people getting dropped, families going bankrupt due to lifetime caps, employers reducing hours to avoid providing benefits, or simply no longer offering health insurance at all.<\/p>\n It is a reform in process, but its benefits far outweigh whatever drawbacks exist.<\/p>\n What saddens and outrages me the most, though, is how much energy has been put into destroying rather than improving Obamacare. And I\u2019m not even talking about the lies (remember death panels?) designed to thwart it from the get-go. The Supreme Court allowed states to opt out of Medicaid expansion<\/a>, leaving millions of poor Americans who live in 23 (mostly Republican-controlled) states uncovered yet unable to afford healthcare on the exchanges.<\/p>\n Now even the federally managed exchanges (set up because so many of these same states refused to take responsibility for their own residents, and passed the buck to the Feds they deplore) are at risk as the Supreme Court considers King v. Burwell<\/a>. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs in a case that is based on what most see as the political exploitation of a semantic glitch, it will likely prove Obamacare\u2019s unraveling<\/a>. Which is exactly what its scorched-earth opponents want.<\/p>\n What do I want? It\u2019s simple, really. I want a law that has helped tens of millions of Americans already, and which promises to benefit many more in the future. I\u2019m grateful to President Obama for achieving what no other president had been able to accomplish.<\/p>\n Please\u2014hands off our Obamacare!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" First off, let me just say that I believe single payer is the way to go.\u00a0No system is perfect, but single payer delivers quality healthcare more equitably, efficiently, and cost-effectively. That said, I\u2019m a huge fan of the Affordable Care … Continue reading