King v. Burwell has been decided: where do we go from here? My article in Salon, available here.
Monthly Archives: June 2015
Discussing King v. Burwell on the Morning Show at WBAI 99.5 FM
This morning I discussed the implications of King v. Burwell - what it might change, what it won’t change - on the Morning Show with Pamela Brown and Michael Haskins on WBAI 99.5FM (starting at 01:48)
Jacobin: From Exchange to Egalité
“However the Supreme Court rules, Obamacare isn’t enough. We need a more fundamentally egalitarian health care system.” My article on the meaning and implications of King v. Burwell in Jacobin.
Blog: Political Jostling Post King v. Burwell
Democrats may be overly optimistic in their hopes that a Supreme Court ruling against Obamacare subsidies in King v. Burwell would be an unambiguous political disaster for Republicans.
The absurd, widely ridiculed claim tweeted by Senator John Thune – which suggested that the Affordable Care Act was to blame for the (potential) loss of health insurance premiums subsidies for six million Americans – was admittedly far too crude to gain traction:
At the same time, as reported yesterday by Politico and the Associated Press, Congressional Republicans are already readying proposals that would provide for the temporary extension of insurance subsidies in case of a victory of the plaintiffs in King. Such proposals, however, would simultaneously gut key Affordable Care provisions, like the individual and employer mandates.
These proposals would be unacceptable for Democrats, and indeed would presumably be vetoed by Obama if passed. However, as noted by Greg Sargent at the Washington Post in May, this would then provide Republicans with a potentially potent political line: “Claim they offered a reasonable “compromise” designed to spare all those millions of people from getting thrown off of insurance, while lamenting that Obama refused to go along with it …”
All in all, some rather sordid scheming, given all the lives on the line. From the perspective of the progressive health care agenda, however, strategizing how to move beyond the ACA in the months and years ahead is far more important than the post King political jostling.