SCOTUS Decision is a Win for Alaskan Women
~President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act in 2010
Today’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on the Affordable Care Act means that critical new benefits for women remain intact.
The constitutionality of Obama’s Health Care plan was in question, and a 5-4 decision (including Chief Justice Roberts) came down in favor of the President’s health care reform law. Even the individual mandate was upheld, not under the Commerce Clause, but under Congress’ powers of taxation.
Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Northwest released a statement this morning stating that under today’s ruling, millions of women will have access to birth control without a co-pay starting in 2012—protecting their health, making their reproductive choice more affordable, and reducing infant mortality rates if and when they do decide to have children.
“More than 54 million Americans have already received coverage for preventative health screenings including mammograms at no cost since August 2010, including 121,000 Alaskans, according to healthcare.gov. Moving forward, women will be guaranteed direction access to OB/GYN providers without first needing a referral.
Opponents of this law have vowed to continue their attempts to repeal many of the benefits for women. Planned Parenthood is committed to protecting these provisions because we see firsthand the need for affordable health care every day. One in five women in America rely on Planned Parenthood at some point in their lives, and 90 percent of what our Alaskan health centers provide is preventive cancer screenings, STD tests, birth control, education and more.”
“While we’re glad the Supreme Court upheld the important protections in the ACA, the real credit for the breakthrough legislation belongs to those who passed it,” said Clover Simon, Alaska Team Lead at Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest “The Affordable Care Act marks the biggest advance for women’s health in a generation, and we thank President Barack Obama for his leadership on this issue, as well as Senator Mark Begich.”
You can read the full text of the decision HERE.
[*le sigh…*]
On my [now-defunct] high school’s FB page, there’s been much discussion over (the now decided) SCOTUS ruling on Obamacare.
Last evening, a friend posted: “Some day, but not today, Atlas will shrug.”
To which my sibling replied: “My hope is in the Lord, not silliness of mankind.”
[yes; *le BIG sigh* — it’s hard to have such a rwnj/’righteous’ fanatic/’religious’ zealot as a family member.]
And with that, I head out to our well house and see if I can figure out what my incredible, late DH used to do get everything back in order when we’d turn on a tap(s) and nothing came out. I know it has something to do with ants crawling into the electronics of the pump switch, and having to ‘brush them out’, but beyond that, I haven’t a clue. (It’s one of those things you just don’t bother to ask your partner about, you know? I’ve come across soooo many of those in the past 7 months.) Off I trek in the 102+-degree heat — oh, joy. The thing *would* quit on a Friday afternoon when it’s boiling out and all the electricians/plumbers are out answering calls for kaput airconditioners… beth.
Anyone else catch how GOPers and TBers have been ‘presenting’ the SCOTUS ruling? They keep repeating the SCOTUS decision IS “a tax on the middle class” (… aha! see there, Obama, you said it wasn’t a tax; SCOTUS says it is! You lied to us! ‘Hope and Change’ my adz — all you do is lie, you sorry piece of work!)
I’ve heard many TP/GOPers on the media, today, saying the reason they are so irate over that portion of the healthcare overhaul –as upheld by SCOTUS’s 5-4decision — is that it’s going to demand “a tax of ALL middle-classers.”
While I can sort of see the convolution of how they’ve come to that conclusion, [IE: middle-classers *have* to carry health insurance under Obamacare…it’s going to be something middle-classers are going to have to pay/buy/put out money for — therefore, it’s a “tax”] what they *fail* to huff, puff, and blather about is: ALL citizens *have* to carry health insurance under Obamacare…*not* just the middle-classers.
Totally ignoring the provision that if a person is *unable* to purchase health insurance on their own (and/or to get coverage through employment), there are safety-net programs to help defray the costs and/or they can be given a waiver, AND, that the”all citizens must have health insurance coverage” part *also* includes the ‘weatlhy’, [or ‘the wealthy’ will be financially penalized, too…just like the ‘middle-classers’ who fail to purchase/have coverage] the GOP/TPers are really going to town with their blatant sins of omission on this one. They’re cherry-picking, again, their talking points.
What they also fail to mention in their irateness, is that mandated health insurance coverage is a 2-part, either/or proposition: Citizens *must* carry health insurance, BUT, if they don’t, they can -and will- be “fined”. (I believe I heard the ‘fine’ is a % of their income…something like 2%/”middle-class” average of $700.) GOP/TPers are parsing *this* also into being “a tax”– and presenting it *as if* ALL middle-classers, alone!, will *have* to pay it *in addition to* paying for their mandated personal health care insurance. In other words, according to the ‘wisdom’ I’ve heard from GOP/TPers, today, “middle-classers” are going to be double-whammy “taxed” because of this Obamacare mandate.
Are TP/GOPers *really* so unable to read English and/or comprehend source-cited, straight-forward information -also given to them in English- that they can’t figure out what Obamacare’s programs and provisions are? Are they *that* frigging dumb and obtuse? Have they investigated it *personally* and come to their *own* conclusion that Obamacare spells tragedy for this country…or are they just regurgitating the manifestations of fantastical Palin/Bachmann/Limbaugh/et.al imaginations and/or “the party” line? Do they really and truly believe all the bunk they spew to the public about Obamacare? (And if they don’t, why the heck do they Keep spewing it?)
In every way possible –legit or not– they’ve been ramping up Obamacare disinformation. Is it any wonder so many are falling for their bs about Obamacare and the SCOTUS ruling, and are mad as hell that Obama (and SCOTUS) has betrayed the American citizen so badly? Is it any wonder so many citizens are scared spitless over the prospect of having to live under Obamacare rules and regulations?
In all honesty, I am throughly embarassed for GOP/TPers. At every turn, they seem to revel in showing their ignorance — and never so much as with the complete misrepresentation/ignorance of the *total* Obamacare ‘package’. How sad for our nation that [willful] ignorance has been rewarded with power. beth.
If it looks like a tax and walks like a tax and quacks like a tax,it’s a duck er I mean a user fee. Bush 41.
It’s the usual tactic of promoting fear among the low-information FOX watchers.
They only tell part of the story but it’s told in the most sensationalized, dramatic, and over the top way so that the truth gets conveniently obscured. Since most of the people who watch FOX or listen to the GOP garbage are never exposed to any other source of information, they believe every half-truth they’re told. They’re also convinced by the GOP that any information that contradicts what they’re been told is false and a ‘derty librul lie’.
Thus the effort to destroy public education among the right wing. Have to keep those voters ignorant and gullible or they just might have the nerve to question what they’ve been told! Have you read about the new Republican platform in Texas?
“The position causing the most controversy, however, is the statement that they oppose the teaching of “higher order thinking skills” — a curriculum which strives to encourage critical thinking — arguing that it might challenge “student’s fixed beliefs” and undermine “parental authority.””
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/texas-republican-party-2012-platform-education_n_1632097.html?utm_hp_ref=education
Noooo siree bob, we don’t want them young’uns doing any o’ that thinkin’ nonsense!!!
Oh, wouldn’t the silence be wonderful if Republicans were forced to only tell the truth?
Oh, wouldn’t the silence be wonderful if Republicans were forced to tell only the truth?
It is important to remember that Obamacare is not a liberal solution to our health care problems in this country. It is a conservative solution. It is Romneycare from Massachusetts mixed with ideas approved by Gingrich and the Heritage foundation.
And it is wonderful that we have it in this country. It isn’t a single payer health care plan that would be very helpful, but it is better than what we would have otherwise.
And I am eternally grateful to Pres. Obama for pushing this through. Sure, he leans to the right on many issues that I care about, but his moderate to right-leaning policies are far better than what the crazies who have taken control of the republican party would give us.
Well said, John!
In this political climate, and with the goal of the GOP to obstruct EVERYthing the President does, frankly it’s amazing we got this much passed.
It’s not a perfect bill and there is a lot that can be fixed, improved and tweaked, but it’s an enormous step forward toward making sure that the basic health needs of every citizen in this country are taken care of.
I believe this legislation will be seen as one of the most significant accomplishments of the Obama administration, as well as one that will ultimately save millions of lives.
I have always consider the ACA to be the first step in a long series that will ultimately lead to single payor insurance in this country. At least I hope so. I may not live long enough to see my ultimate goal but it is what I am hoping and praying for.
Amen. From your typing fingers to the Goddess’s eyes, Beaglemom. Let’s hope that this small piece of legislation is the first step toward Medicare for All, or, barring that, a Netherlands-style public/private health insurance for all.
I just watched the ever popular Mrs. Palin on Greta.
Mrs. Palin asserts that our President, the Constitutional Lawyer, has never read the constitution.
My ears are bleeding.
After reading your post–I found a video of Palin on Greta’s show.
Wow!!!!!! that wig was just plain awlful!!!!!! But most of all, she hasn’t learned anything since the last time I heard her rattle off her mouth.
Leave it to this Supreme Court to renew my faith in our government a little. I know plenty of people, as I’m sure we all do, who will really benefit from this.
CNN and Fake Noise both got the Scotus decision wrong this morning. For what it is worth-Cnn apologized on air,Fake Noise insisted they had it right before Me-gynecologist Kelly of Fake Noise suggested they were wrong. Retardicans were ecstatic about the wrong decision and teeted about it. Some Dems tweeted the wrong decision as well. Crow has to be a bitter dish for rwnj to swallow.
Definitely a Snoopy Dance of Joy day.
Is it possible that Roberts, realizing that striking down the health care bill would start a nation wide body count of the dying, and lay those deaths at his feet, has decided to look to his legacy as Chief Justice.
Surely, whatever his political beliefs, he can see that his court’s Citizen’s United decision is a hammer blow to democracy that the whole world is watching and condemning.
Maybe, just maybe he is coming to realize that his position is responsible for the welfare of all Americans, not just the Rushs and Roves of the world. In fact history looks at the Chief Justice with much the same mind and eyes as they do at presidents and and at dictators.
I imagine you are correct with regard to Justice Roberts thinking of his legacy and possibly the advice of his wife. This decision could very well be the most important issue in his SCOTUS career. He reached out to find a means to make the act constitutional. It may well be remembered as the Roberts Decision.
Roberts asserted at his confirmation hearings that he was apolitical. This may be the first opportunity to see that side of him. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I’m doing a Syrtaki, the Zorba the Greek dance. Anyone want to join me?
I’ll join in spirit. My knees would not cooperate otherwise! Dance on! President Obama is my hero and has been for quite a long time! When the pundits finally start admitting all that is good and fair and decent in this law then we can start moving forward as a nation. Nothing like having roadblocks put up by idiots like Sarah Palin (death panels) and stuffy prelates (nonsense about “forced” contraception coverage)! Let the Republicans whine about a “tax”; it’s as much a “tax” as social security or Medicare deductions.
Beaglemom – you can sit on the sidelines and yell “OPA!” with leenie and me!
Are we throwing plates, too??? Opa!!!
Count me in, tigerwine. I love to dance, and this is an appropriate occasion.
Governor Parnell has again wasted public funds suing the federal government, this time in an effort to destroy Alaska families’ health care rights and services. Captain Zero scores a big zero.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/people-moving-to-canada-because-of-obamacare
this has to be a joke, people wanna move to Canada
The reaction from the rwnj’s is cracking me up!
Let them move. Think Canada has a health care bill in their country too. So maybe they can find a place that doesn’t have health care–like Afghanistan.
Doesn’t Canada have single-payer universal health care…just like the RWNJs have been gnashing their teeth about being ‘soshalized medicine’?
Teh stoopid – it burns!
I can just see the Canadian border guards questioning these idiots rushing to move to Canada over health care reform. And they probably won’t let them bring in their AK-47’s or bullet-proof vest piercing ammunition. I don’t think the Canadians want our teabaggers.
BHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! If only they would !! but I think a country where there is no goverment interference, no gun laws, no taxes to speak of, schools of your chosing and you can do as you wish would be mo’ betta,,,… that Garden of Eden for Republicans against Goverment…. Somalia !!
Watching Scalia’s unprofessional snit earlier this week was akin to reading the goat’s entrails. (Probably the only time in history that reading entrails actually worked.) Suck it, Scalia.
Just heard the the Reps are taking the day off. They have volunteered to help Rommney find his etch a sketch.
Since rwnj love conspiracy theories,here’s mine. Nutters claim they will abolish Obamacare through legislation if the Scotus upholds it. To make healthcare safe for everyone rethugs will abolish hospitals and doctors-even though they play doctors in their daytime jobs. If they can abolish hospitals then sick people won’t lay around racking up enormous medical bills they can’t pay. Problem solved. I got a theory about fast and furious,too. Nutters will love this one as well.
I wrote to our Rep Senator Grassley yesterday about the” Fast and Furious thing.
I reminded him of the “Wide Receiver” which the Reps don’t want to talk about.
Also reminded him of all the guns we sent to H. Hussian in Irag, and the weapons we sent to help the Russians in Afghanistan , that they are using to kill our men and women who are fighting there now.
He probably will not like it when he reads that I think if they can’t do their job , they should all resign.
I don’t expect an answer. Just more BS that we will hear on WHO.
Yay! doing a happy happy joy joy dance!
so glad for the millions of my fellow citizens who so desperately needed this!
who would have thunk it?!
*doing the happy dance with bubbles*
Doing a jig.
Boogie down! 😀