“President Obama’s healthcare reform law will be under attack on every conceivable front next year. Its first life-or-death experience lies in the hands of the Supreme Court, which could potentially strike down the Affordable Care Act as early as June… Legislation to remove the long-term-care CLASS Act could get through the Senate after the administration declared the program isn’t sustainable. And a House bill to repeal the law’s independent payment advisory board, one of the few provisions to control costs, has at least 12 Democratic co-sponsors.”
“2011 was supposed to be a bad year for President Obama’s health care law, with House Republicans taking aim and federal lawsuits snaking their way through the judiciary. And although the House of Representatives has had limited success in dismantling the overhaul, key portions began to unravel all by themselves.
Here’s a look at the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s year in review.”
“Doctors’ feelings about the health-care overhaul law passed last year are about as mixed as their patients’, research released today shows…
Many of the 501 physicians surveyed indicated that they had sour feelings about specific aspects of the law.
Around three-fourths of the doctors worried about physician shortages and longer wait times as more people get health coverage, and also that emergency rooms would become overwhelmed. And 90% thought they would be paid less by insurance companies as a result of the law.”
“The goal is to keep the spotlight on other controversial aspects of the healthcare law while the Supreme Court rules on the unpopular individual mandate. Republicans see this as a winning strategy, and appear to be supported in this assessment by the latest Kaiser Health tracking polls. They show the law continues to be unpopular, with 44 percent of Americans saying they have a negative view of the law versus 37 percent who support it.”
“The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 33-17 to repeal the healthcare reform law’s long-term care CLASS Act on Wednesday, setting up a possible vote by the full House by year’s end. Democrats stayed largely united in support of the program, which the Obama administration has put on hold because it says it can’t find a way to make it solvent. Only three Democrats – Reps. Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike Ross (Ark.) and John Barrow (Ga.) – voted to repeal the program; all three had voted against the healthcare reform law last year.”
“Voters want the Supreme Court to overturn President Obama’s healthcare law, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
The survey showed 48 percent support for the court striking down the healthcare law, compared to 40 percent who said the court should uphold it.”
“President Barack Obama is using passage of the health-care law to help him get re-elected. He’s just not making the sales pitch in public… Since July, the president has refrained at six news conferences from discussing the health-care measure that became a major issue in the 2010 midterm elections in which the Democrats lost control of the House.”
“Support for President Obama’s healthcare reform law rose slightly over the past month after reaching a low of 34 percent in September, according to the latest Kaiser Health tracking poll. The poll found 44 percent of Americans had a negative view of the law in October, down from a high of 51 percent a month earlier. Support rose slightly to 37 percent. The latest poll confirms that public opinion about the law has had its ups and downs, even as support for the law hasn’t outpolled opposition to it since December of 2010 (they were tied at 41 percent in April 2011).”
“By all means, let’s pursue every avenue and let us make sure that our laws are in their proper relation to the Constitution. But the core case against Obamacare must be a sustained political case made on policy grounds, and the means to undo the law as a whole and pursue real reform will present themselves not next summer when the Court rules but next fall when the public does. Let us not forget it, and not lose our focus and resolve.”
“Voters in Ohio approved a measure Tuesday night disapproving of President Obama’s healthcare law. Ohioans passed an amendment to the state constitution that says Ohio residents cannot be forced to buy health insurance… But even with strong turnout around a traditionally Democratic issue, 66 percent of voters had supported the anti-mandate initiative at the time the Associated Press called the vote.”