ACA Is On Fire - Obamacare Now A "Third Rail"

[ProSense]

ACA Is On Fire - Obamacare Now A "Third Rail"

by Reinvented Daddy

Yesterday the President announced that over 6 million souls have already signed up for private insurance policies through the ACA. We know that around 3 million adults 26 and under are now on their parents policies. Around 6 million working poor are now receiving free, single payer insurance via expanded Medicaid. There are surely several million more who have bought ACA policies directly through the insurance companies while the websites were buggy.

I'm going to verbalize something we never hear in the media but is surely a fact as we speak:

Right now, there are about 20,000,000 people who are on good, affordable health insurance directly because of the ACA and these people know who brought it to them.

We are all rightfully concerned about the SCOTUS giving corporations the right to impose moral restrictions on our medical decisions. Man From Wasuchistan, channeling Joe Papantonio, makes a great case why a favorable Hobby ruling for Hobby Lobby would be a terrible Gordian Knot for corporatists. Sometimes the more you struggle the tighter the binds become. Case law like quicksand often sees efforts yielding opposite results. Another contemporary case may have equally broad implications. The DC Circuit Appeals Court is now deciding if brutal language in the ACA law says that buyers through the federal Healthcare.gov do not qualify for subsidies because the law specifically states they they don't (I've seen the language and it is there... bad law writing thanks to Mr. Baucus of course). If a three judge panel wants to follow the letter of the law rather than the intent, subsidies on these policies could be nullified.

However, in such a ruling, surely a stay would be put in place until SCOTUS could rule, punting the issue into 2015. While this would seem like a great victory for the Ludites, it would force millions of Americans now getting subsidies to freak out in Red and Purple state across the land. State legislatures would be forced to agree to host exchanges and the political toll on Republicans would be gruesome. It would be a bloodbath and by the time SCOTUS ruled most states would be off of the National site anyway. The wave of indignation, nay, hatred for those who brought about this travesty would push Medicaid expansion through all but the most tone-deaf state houses. Now that the benefits have started flowing, Obamacare became an official "Third Rail". Yes, Texas would continue to screw over their citizens... and the Blue Texas movement, under Governor Wendy Davis, will progress a lot faster.

Be careful what you wish for.

<...>

By 2009 Nancy Pelosi had forged a large majority in the House of Representatives and she leveraged that Congress into one of the most productive and progressive of our generation. The crowning achievement was the ACA. Unfortunately for all of us, progressive policies including ENDA, SNAP, Unemployement Insurance extensions and most importantly a minimum wage increase simply are not going to be realized by this current congress. We need a new and vastly improved House with Nancy Pelosi at the gavel to make anything happen and that is possible. Even with Obama at his polling nadir polling still show Democrats with a slight advantage on the generic Congressional ballot and a large advantage in party approval. By the summer millions of Americans will be swamping state capitols with signs saying "Raise My Minimum Wage", "Expand My Medicaid" and "I Want My ACA". Gerrymandering has created a lot of red districts with small, beatable margins like the one Mike Rogers abandoned today in Michigan. If the tide comes our way we need to be in a position to win them.

To that end it is so important that we turn our heads around and take to the offensive by fielding great candidates against incumbent Reds in pink districts. If you live in a safe Dem district or a safe GOP district, look around for a winnable district to contribute to.

In PA, where a popular congressional vote win of 75,000 votes netted Dems 5 of 18 seats in 2012 thanks to treasonous gerrymandering I have found my adoptive candidate in the Pittsburgh suburb PA-12 . Erin McClelland is a progressive with the resume, charisma and 25/8 campaign hustle to take back this traditional home of John Murtha and union Dems. If you don't have a candidate to call your own please give her a twenty and follow her campaign from up close or afar. It's like gambling but with great kharma.

Go to her ACT Blue page to help.

If you have a good candidate you want people in prohibitive D or R districts to help please mention them in the comments. I do think this is something we need to start dwelling on because 2014 is going to be a year that shocks the Stu Rothenbergs and Larry Sabato's of the world into admitting that the Republican Party is already in histories trash heap.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/28/1287989/-ACA-Is-On-Fire-Obamacare-Now-A-Third-Rail

If I'm reading that correctly, I think the 20 million represents those newly signed up for Medicaid, young people on their parents' plan and family member of those registered on the exchanges.

Highly likely, see this chart: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024697984

BREAKING: Obamacare Enrollment Tops 6 Million
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024736384





Note:

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[blue neen]

1. Again, kudos for the mention of Erin McClelland in PA-12.

She definitely has a good chance of winning against Keith Rothfus (R-Teaparty).

"In PA, where a popular congressional vote win of 75,000 votes netted Dems 5 of 18 seats in 2012 thanks to treasonous gerrymandering I have found my adoptive candidate in the Pittsburgh suburb PA-12 . Erin McClelland is a progressive with the resume, charisma and 25/8 campaign hustle to take back this traditional home of John Murtha and union Dems. If you don't have a candidate to call your own please give her a twenty and follow her campaign from up close or afar. It's like gambling but with great kharma."

"Go to her ACT Blue page to help."

This is the kind of thing we need to be discussing on DU. Right now, not after Labor Day.

[freshwest]

4. Agreed! Thanks for the real world details of how to change our lives for the better! n/t

[Vogon_Glory]

2. I Signed Up For Coverage Using The Exchanges

I signed up for coverage using the exchanges. It doesn't look like the best coverage in the world, but sure as hell beats going bare-back.

Let me tell you, being a 55+ male with a family history of high blood pressure (Mine is normal), I look at pols, shills, and pundits who rail against "Obamacare" with suspicion heavily tinged with barely-concealed hostility.

[blue neen]

3. Going without insurance starts to get even scarier after a certain age.

I'm glad you found coverage.

[madinmaryland]

5. Who is "Reinvented Daddy"??

[sheshe2]

6. And

Re: Hobby Lobby

In case there is any doubt, the Manhattan Declaration is a stunningly radical document. It opposes not just abortion and marriage equality, but also “non-marital sexual cohabitation” and “the discredited idea of unilateral divorce.” The Declaration also ends with a pledge to openly defy the law. “e will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions . . . nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships treat them as marriages or the equivalent”

Snip

If Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood lose, then it remains to be seen whether either of them will actually take up this call for disobedience. Should they win, however, there should be no doubt what the Christian right’s next move will be. The Manhattan Declaration lays out two foes: reproductive liberty and gay rights. Hobby Lobby asks the Court to take care of the former. The next lawsuit will target the latter — and it will be able to cite Hobby Lobby as a powerful precedent supporting anti-gay discrimination.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/03/24/3416549/hobby-lobby-they-have-a-plan/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024737930

Thanks PS! Excellent OP!

[ProSense]

7. Thanks for the link. n/t

[Cha]

8. Thanks ProSense!

[Hekate]

9. KnR, ProSense

[Fearless]

10. So they'll only offer to cut it in exchange for a short term gain?

Or did I forget how we play this game?



Of course, someone will think in the spirit of my comment I'm some sort of right-wing crazy. So this...

[ProSense]

12. Kick! n/t

[Iwillnevergiveup]

11. We have to pay attention

and help Alan Grayson who once again, is getting hammered by Koch & Koch, as well as Dave Peiser running against Issa in CA. One must stay, the other must go.

K&R

[IronLionZion]

13. A ton of people sign up through private marketplaces and brokers too

and they won't be counted for some time. I hope it comes out before November, but without enough time for GOP to change their attack strategy. When the true numbers of people with health insurance is given, we may magically see GOP start to take credit for the ACA as their big compromise to save America from socialism or some BS.

I'd like to see the next reform to allow people who fall into the subsidy gap the option to buy into medicaid as a public option. Or hopefully successful implementation of Vermont's single payer system will inspire other liberal states to follow suit. Red states can go to hell.

[Walk away]

14. I finally got my hairdresser signed up today.

I have been bugging her for months but she just kept putting it off. This woman really needs health insurance but she is one of those "plenty of time to help other people but no time for herself" types.
Today I went into the salon at closing with Thai take out and invited her home for dinner. It took 45 mins to get her signed up and we ate dinner while we did it.

[steve2470]

15. big kick and big rec ! nt