Various opinion pieces minimize the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Very
importantly, the Affordable Care Act narrows the gap between the between the insured and
uninsured.
Others minimize the negative impact if the Supreme Court finds the ACA unconstitutional. The impact would be catastrophic.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 52 million adults nationwide and an estimated 600,000 in New Jersey could be rejected for coverage. The individual insurance market would be thrown into chaos.
If the ACA is struck down, patient protections such as coverage for pre-existing conditions would be annulled.
Critics decry that the ACA was never a bipartisan process. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ACA borrowed heavily from Republican Mitt Romney’s insurance plan that was implemented in Massachusetts when Romney was governor.
In addition, in 2009, Democrat Max Baucus and Republican Charles Grassley convened a group of three Democrats and three Republicans, “the Gang of Six,” starting their talks with the template of the 1993-94 Republican plan.
However, after Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell warned that cooperation with Democrats would make these Republican members’ Senate futures much dimmer, they backed out of the “Gang.”
When the ACA was not ultimately bipartisan, it was due to Republicans refusing to work cooperatively with Democrats given Republican opposition to doing anything that would make President Obama successful.
Kim S. Luxhoj
Freehold Township
