Obamacare: The Second Bite of the Cherry.

Sometimes, I wonder whether America’s esteemed Founding Fathers would look at Washington’s political processes, shake their heads and ask, “How did we create this?”

As readers know, there has always been a tension between the legislative and executive branches of the American government. Frequently, voters elect a Republican to occupy the White House with Democrats controlling both Houses of Congress, or vice versa. When this happens, governing becomes problematical, which was what the Framers intended.

However, the Supreme Court, the so-called “least dangerous branch”, sometimes weighs in to make nonsense of laws which have been approved by both Congress and the President. For example, in 1935, the Court totally wrecked Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. That’s for another time.

In March this year, the Court will hear arguments in a lawsuit that claims the Administration does not have legal authority to grant tax subsidies to millions of people who have insured their health under the Affordable Care Act. I do not understand why the Court has agreed to take the suit. Surely, the provisions of the Act have already been approved. The Court’s decision may well be political. There is a majority of Republican Supremes on the bench.

The ACA is the centrepiece of President Obama’s presidency. More than ten million Americans now have health insurance as a result of the legislation. Undoubtedly, its benefits will be proclaimed by Democratic candidates in the 2016 elections. Possibly, the Republicans want to remove this advantage. They cannot achieve anything by seeking a repeal of the Act in a Congress which they control. They know the President would veto such a ploy. Sadly, the Democrats do not have the votes in Congress to change the law themselves.

The passage of the Affordable Healthcare Bill in Congress was brutal. Many long fights resulted in the passing of an emasculated law but something was better than nothing if those Americans who could not afford health insurance were to be helped. After the President signed the Bill into law, it became the subject of several law suits, culminating, in 2012, with a Supreme Court approval of the law in a 5-4 decision. After a slow start, more than thirteen million Americans have signed up and now enjoy health insurance.

Since the 2012 decision, the ACA has been under constant attack from Congressional Republicans who would deny healthcare to those who cannot afford it. These people now believe they have found a loophole in the Act, which provides that tax subsidies can be enjoyed by people buying insurance cover in state-run marketplaces but not those who buy from a federal marketplace. The federal government currently operates marketplaces in 34 states, so if the Supremes find for the plaintiff Republicans this time round, the ACA will be gutted because 85% of insured persons under the ACA need the tax credit to pay the premiums.

If the 34 states concerned wished, they could establish their own insurance marketplaces but none have made the effort to do so since the Court announced it would hear the case. Yet in the past two months, 6.5 million Americans have enrolled for health cover. The percentage of uninsured Americans has dropped to 13%, the lowest figure since 2008. Surely, this is the best argument to keep the Act intact.

Both the Supreme Court justices and members of Congress enjoy the best medical health plans available in USA, at the taxpayer’s expense. It would be ironic at best and disgraceful at worst if these people decide that poor and disadvantaged Americans should be denied health insurance because the latter cannot afford insurance without a tax break.

The Republican ideology on this issue is dumbfounding and potentially a vote loser. I can only hope the Supreme Court upholds the needs of the many and maintains its 2012 decision that the ACA is indeed constitutional.