Why conservatives hate obamacare

The ACA carved out an important role for the states in expanding the state-administered Medicaid program to provide health care for poor Americans. To achieve universal coverage, the federal government needs to do it alone, with a simple federal entitlement, like Medicare. The ACA case therefore set a strange precedent. The result is a lopsided reading of constitutional authority. The federal government has a weakened power to work with private businesses and with states to achieve universal coverage.

Meanwhile, the federal government has a nearly invincible power to itself tax and spend. The battle was not yet over. In , President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans eliminated the tax penalty for going without insurance. A judge in Texas then held that in doing so, Congress inadvertently repealed the entire ACA, including its subsidies, protections for preexisting conditions and expansion of Medicaid.

The judge theorized that a tax of zero is not a legal nullity, but rather an unconstitutional and fatal flaw that brings down the entire bill. That case is the one now in the Supreme Court. Some conservative legal scholars have panned the challenge. The conservatives who now control the Supreme Court face an odd dilemma.

In the short run, they may strike down the ACA, causing chaos that Congress and the president may not be able fix, given the politics. However, as long as American law reflects the moral commitments to people with emergency health care needs and preexisting conditions, then someday Congress will have to find a way to pay for it.

If conservatives keep killing conservative reforms like the individual mandate and expanding Medicaid through the states, the only alternative left will be a single-payer system, like Medicare for All. We know. The Good. Obamacare has provided more than 20 million people —most of them low-income or working class—with health coverage. It has done this with no negative effects on either Medicare or the employer health insurance market.

Health care costs under Obamacare have continued to grow at very modest rates. The Bad. Obamacare unquestionably has some problems. About 20 percent of its customers choose Bronze plans with very high deductibles. Some of the least expensive plans have narrow networks that restrict your choice of doctor. They oppose the mandate that all Americans must have health insurance the individual mandate , and they oppose a government role in health care.

Yet Medicare, a mandatory insurance for seniors administered by the federal government since , is overwhelmingly approved by the American public. The opposition to a government role in health care is based on the fact that that the vast majority of our citizens do not trust their government.