POLL: Do You Agree With the Supreme Court's Decision to Uphold the Health Care Act?
The health care reform bill–dubbed "Obamacare" by opponents–was signed into law in March 2010 and has been under scrutiny by many–including 26 states that filed a lawsuit against it.
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The most controversial clause of the Affordable Care Act has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, the court announced Thursday.
The group of bills aimed at overhauling the American health care system was signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010. Since then, 26 states filed suit against the act, stating that provisions in it required most uninsured Americans to purchase health insurance were unconstitutional.
According to the Washington Post, the Supreme Court agreed that the mandate itself is unconstitutional, but that it is within the rights of Congress to tax individuals for not having health care. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion.
The ruling also upheld a portion of the bill that asks states to expand their Medicaid coverage, but said that the federal government cannot without Medicaid funding for states that choose not to comply.
Congressman Sander Levin, an ardent supporter of the act who represents St. Clair Shores in the House of Representatives, applauded the ruling.
“The winners today are the American people. After nearly five decades – spanning eight presidents – we have succeeded in enacting comprehensive health care reform. Americans are already benefitting from the law’s provisions that prevent the worst insurance company abuses, expand preventive care, reduce prescription drug costs for seniors, and allow young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance," Levin said in a release.
“Now we can move forward and implement the law’s provisions that will expand coverage, and reform our overall system to reduce costs for middle class families. I urge my Republican colleagues to respect the opinion of the Court and end their misleading and partisan all-out assault on health care reform,” he added.
Henry Ford Health System CEO Nancy Schlichting also praised the ruling ruling as “a win-win” for patients and the country’s health care system.
“This ruling allows health systems like ours to continue making positive reforms to the country’s health care system that was on an unsustainable track prior to the passage of the Act,” says Schlichting, of Henry Ford, which has a health center in St. Clair Shores. “We’re thrilled for the nearly 500,000 uninsured people in Michigan who will now have access to affordable health care, many for the first time, which in turn will bring much needed economic relief to Henry Ford and other health care providers that have been coping for years with the growing cost of uncompensated care.”
Do you agree with the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act? Vote in our poll and tell us why you agree or disagree in the comments.
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Henry Ford Medical Center
19401 Hubbard Dr, Dearborn, MI -
Henry Ford Medical Center
24725 Jefferson Ave, Saint Clair Shores, MI
Angie Connolly
9:05 am on Friday, June 29, 2012
I cannot believe thier are 42% of the people agree with the suupreme Court decision!
The amount of people that have no idea whats in that thing just blows my mind!!I feel like going to hide in a cave somewhere. How EASILY WE HAVE GIVEN UP OUR FREEDOMS. WHAT FOOLS !!
Linda Homan
6:28 pm on Friday, June 29, 2012
Actually, the percentage of those that agree would be much higher if the question was worded differently because many of the people that don't agree with it wanted single payer or medicare for all. I may be a fool, but I think it is time that insurance companies are forced to do the right thing. Until you have been in a cancer treatment facility when people have been dumped by their insurance companies or treatment was not allowed for one reason or another - you may not understand how important this program is for people. My daughter is 34 years old and has a bad knee - they don't know why but it just swells for no reason. As soon as it was on her medical record, she could no longer get insurance. The death panels are the insurance companies and while this is not single payer, it is much better than nothing.
Angie Connolly
10:33 pm on Friday, June 29, 2012
like I said, you have no idea whats in that thing. I don;t know what kind of insurance companies your dealing with, maybe Canada, or England. You can walk into any hospital in this Country and be treated.Your daughter has a swollen knee and can't get insurance, you must think we are idiots to fall for that one.
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Linda Homan
2:29 am on Saturday, June 30, 2012
It is true. I do know what is in the thing although sometimes the language is difficult to understand - it is readily available online for anyone that wants to read it. http://www.healthcare.gov/law/index.html
Angie Connolly
11:31 am on Saturday, June 30, 2012
The problems with insurance companies are what should be addressed. That can be done without destroying the whole economy in the process. The cost of health care should also be adressed
Linda Homan
2:02 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
I believe that is what the Affordable Care Act hopes to do. I also believe that it will bring down the cost of health care for most people - especially the middle class who have the most to lose if they get ill. It certainly isn't perfect, but it does address those problems. The only people that it will really impact are the ones that can afford insurance, but refuse to get it. Those are also the folks that land up in emergency rooms when they get sick or have an accident. You are right, they will get care in any hospital in this country - unless it is a catastrophic illness like cancer. Then they will only get care after they have lost all their personal resources. I went through cancer treatment at Beaumont Hospital, there were three instances that I witnessed where the insurance companies failed to take care of their clients. In the first instance they cancelled a lady that got cancer for the second time, in the second case they refused to pay for treatment that they said was experimental - when it wasn't (I was getting the same treatment and I know that my insurance company would have refused it also if it was experimental), and the last case was when the lady had reached the maximum that her company would pay for her illness. The only solution that was offered by the hospital was offered to the lady that was the poorest, they helped her get on medicaid.
Angie Connolly
4:42 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
Taking all the short commings in health care right now into consideration, It does not juistify ruining this economy ten times more then it is now. With this bill the debt will rise above our ever getting out from under. We will become a banana republic.Our children and grand children etc. etc. will be stuck paying for it. The tax burden on them will make them all poor and struggling.
The other freedoms we will lose because of it will not be worth the few benifits we may get from this Obama care fiasco. IT GOES BACK TO READING AND UNDERSTANDING ALL THE REST OF THAT BILL. IF YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND IT, GO TO THE HERATAGE FOUNDATION . COM AND LET THEM INFORM YOU OF THE MANY MANY BAD THINGS IN IT.
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Linda Homan
7:22 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
One person dying of cancer (or whatever) when they should have been covered by their insurance company does justify whatever needs to happen to fix it. Don't believe all the doom and gloom anyway, it is mostly propaganda to make you vote for a certain candidate to get rid of it. A candidate that had the original idea BTW and was totally supportive of it until he wasn't.
Unfortunately the Heritage Foundation has an agenda that minimizes truth in the explanation, I would suggest that you read the bill on your own with an open mind. You might find a more optimistic outlook. I think (and hope) you will realize in a few years that you have more positive than negative from the bill. I found that having cancer totally improves outlook on life if you survive - no point to having negative in your life. Look at the bright side - there is always a bright side - and work toward improving the rest.
Angie Connolly
8:46 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
I also am a cancer survivor. I won't use that to make bad choices. I have a fear that if it comes back, because I am a senior citizen, They will tell me to suck it up and take a pill( words I heard right from the lips of our concerned President) Have you read the Heritage Foundations explanations of the of the many taxes and the loss of freedoms? As a liberal you have no sound judgement.
what I have already seen from this President, Yes I will vote for the person running against him, and then I will look for a bright side, If this President remains, I see a big black whole. If you don't have a clue and can't see the destruction he has already caused to this Country, I rest my case. No more discussion.
Linda Homan
8:58 pm on Saturday, June 30, 2012
I do have a clue, but I have a very different perspective than you do. I am sure that you have researched and reached your point of view with the same thought and effort that I have, but we will never agree. I can only say that I empathize with you because I found myself in the same position when John Kerry was our candidate and pretty sure that he would lose. I can only say that I survived the 8 years of Bush somehow and so will you. I too am a senior citizen, but if I get my cancer back I know that they will not tell me to take a pill and suck it up. Last summer they thought mine was back and had spread to the bones, but they had read the test wrong. They were just as aggressive in planning the treatment this time as they were last time. After a week of thinking that I had 2 months at the most, I found out that it was all a mistake. What a relief! I hope that you never have it back, it is really scary, best of luck to you.