Here’s a little reminder of the impact on real people’s lives when the Democrats are willing to take a party line vote for something vital and important:
More people than ever are getting health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, providing new proof of the law’s value even as its survival depends on a Supreme Court ruling that could come as soon as Monday.
Approximately 31 million people now get coverage through “Obamacare,” according to a report that the Department of Health and Human Services issued Saturday. In most cases, that means they’ve enrolled in newly expanded Medicaid programs or purchased subsidized insurance through HealthCare.gov or state exchanges like Covered California.
That figure is the highest ever and reflects a nearly 4 million-person increase in enrollment between 2020 and 2021, following four years when combined enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s programs was basically flat.
The surge is not especially surprising, given how many people lost incomes or jobs during the pandemic. One of the Affordable Care Act’s primary purposes is to create a safety net, so that people can get insurance ― and pay for their medical care ― even if they don’t have access to employer-based insurance or can’t afford premiums.
Also, the program as a whole is under new management. During his term in office, President Donald Trump worked with Republicans in Congress to repeal the program. Although they failed, the administration slashed funding for outreach and promotion, reflecting Trump’s open hostility to the program.
Joe Biden, who famously called the Affordable Care Act “a big fucking deal” when President Barack Obama signed it in 2010, has taken a very different attitude. One of his first actions as president was to establish a new “open enrollment” period that, with an extension, will go through August.
I’m quite sure that Joe Manchin wouldn’t have voted for the final passage of this bill back in 2010 because there was a handful of red state Democratic Senators who didn’t. But in those days, there was a big Democratic majority and they could afford to let some of these conservative Dems fall away and still win with 51 votes.
But you’d think today’s red/purple state Dems would learn from that exprience and realize that voting with the Republicans does you no good. Most red state Dems who voted against final passage lost their seats anyway. You might as well go out doing something decent for the people.
It takes guts to shake up the status quo against a wall of opposition. It looks like we aren’t going to see that any time soon, unfortunately. We have a couple of myopic weasels in the Democratic party backs by at least a handful of silent cowards.
As the article notes, the Supremes may just effectively repeal the law as early as this week, making all those people suddenly without health care. The case they heard was absurd but the mere fact that they agreed to hear it was unnerving. And the court is now fully packed with nihilistic extremists and we don’t know what they’re going to do. But if they do come up with an adverse ruling we have to hope that the Democrats have the will and the means to correct it. I honestly don’t know if they do.