The Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”) is in more danger than ever before, but it’s no longer getting much attention from “the resistance” outside of healthcare-focused groups. In fact, I was just at a political event the other day where the speaker used saving the ACA as an example of something we’ve accomplished that once seemed impossible.
The ACA is not saved, folks. The attacks just aren’t coming from Congress anymore.
What’s happening
There is a lawsuit called Texas v. US in which the Attorneys General of 20 red states, led by Texas, are suing to overturn the entire ACA. Their argument, in short, is that the individual mandate portion of the ACA was “inseverable” from the rest of the law – in the sense that the individual mandate was needed to fund other features of the law such as protections for people with pre-existing conditions – and so now that the individual mandate is null as of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by GOP Senators in late 2017, the rest of the ACA must be overturned too.
If the courts rule in favor of the plaintiff, here’s what’s at stake:
A state judge in Texas has already ruled in favor of the plaintiff, so now the case has escalated to federal court. Proceedings begin on September 6.
The Department of Justice is Constitutionally mandated to defend laws that are on the books, but Trump’s DOJ has refused to defend the ACA. The Attorneys General of 16 blue states, led by California, have taken up the helm instead.
Meanwhile, hearings on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court will begin on – no coincidence – also September 6. Brett Kavanaugh does not have a friendly record on the ACA:
There is little hope that we’ll be able to block Kavanaugh’s confirmation, as many key Republican swing votes such as Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have signaled that they are likely to vote for him, and even Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, has signaled that she may vote for him (likely because her seat is vulnerable – she’s up for reelection in November, in North Dakota, a red state).
Texas v. US will almost certainly escalate to SCOTUS, very soon after Trump has had the opportunity to pack the court with another anti-ACA Justice of his choosing. This is why we must to everything we can to prevent Kavanaugh from being confirmed.
You may have heard that Republicans have written a bill that will reinstate protections for people with pre-existing conditions if they get overturned as a part of this court case. This is disingenuous at best. Yes, a bill has been written that would force insurers to continue selling you insurance despite your health status. The plan they sell you, however, does not have to include coverage for your condition. So if you’re a cancer patient, insurers couldn’t deny you coverage altogether, but they can choose to exclude cancer treatments from your plan, leaving you on the hook for what could be millions of dollars out of your own pocket. This bill was written only for the purposes of covering their asses politically, not to help you.
What you can do
Call your Senators, regardless of where you live. Either thank them for their opposition to Kavanaugh (most Democratic Senators) or ask them to oppose Kavanaugh (all Republicans + Heidi Heitkamp, Claire McCaskill, and Doug Jones). Here’s are a couple of scripts I’ve written that are relevant if you want help formulating your thoughts:
Encourage your friends to call their Senators, especially those who live in Maine, Alaska, West Virginia, North Dakota, Alabama, Missouri, and Montana. Alternatively, you can phone bank! I attended an event last Sunday where I used software called Hubdialer that connected me directly to citizens in those states. I spoke on the phone with them and asked them to please put in a call to their Senators about Kavanaugh. Instructions on how to do that are located here: https://massachusetts.prochoiceamericaaffiliates.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2018/08/Hubdialer-Phone-Bank-Instructions.pdf
Share this or other posts about this topic on social media. There is much less awareness around the current threats to the ACA than there was last year when Congress was trying to overturn it. We need a lot more people to be paying attention and calling their Senators right now.
What else you should do
Start planning for whatever you need to do in order to stay alive in a post-ACA world. I’m serious about this because, as much as I would love to be optimistic, I honestly don’t think the ACA is going to survive this.
If you have an expensive health condition like I do, the safest place for you right now is in the employer-sponsored insurance pool. If you are able to work or get onto the health plan of someone who works (e.g. a spouse), consider doing that as soon as possible.
If you’re already working but thinking about switching employers, you might want to do that sooner rather than later, as even employer-sponsored plans may be able to enforce a waiting period of a few months before they’ll cover your pre-existing condition in a post-ACA world. If you’re anything like me, a few months without insurance is more than enough time to go bankrupt.
You could also consider moving to Massachusetts, Vermont, or New Jersey, which all have state-level ACA-like systems, which would not be overturned by this lawsuit. California and New York are likely to set up state-level systems that will keep you safe as well.
If you’re putting off a preventative care visit, you may want to get that done sooner rather than later.
If you’re an adult under the age of 26 and not a full-time student, and you’re currently on your parents’ insurance, you may want to start thinking about how to work buying your own insurance into your budget.
If you’re on Medicaid, do you know whether you only qualify due to Medicaid expansion or whether you would have qualified before expansion? Medicaid expansion (in the states where it was implemented) allowed anybody with income at or below 130% of the poverty line to qualify for Medicaid. Pre-expansion, the rules for qualifying for Medicaid varied wildly from state-to-state, but often you could only qualify via very low income, disability, or household size. Figure out whether you still qualify for Medicaid in a post-expansion world, and if not, try to make arrangements to get covered in some other way.
(Spotted earlier. It probably wouldn’t be as funny without the repetition, but I had to laugh. “Christ the Eternal High Priest” is right on the sign. They’re not hiding the name or anything 🤔)
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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