More bad news for Republicans. President Obama
announced today that he planned to go on offense and continue working to
expand the reach of Obamacare to cover more Americans.
The President said:
Five years ago, we finally declared that in
America, health care is not a privilege for a few, but a right for all.
And this week, after more than fifty votes in Congress to repeal or
weaken this law; after a Presidential election based in part on
preserving or repealing this law; after multiple challenges to this law
before the Supreme Court, we can now say this for certain: the
Affordable Care Act still stands, it is working, and it is here to stay.
On Thursday, when the Court upheld a critical part
of the Affordable Care Act, it was a victory for hardworking Americans
all across this country whose lives are more secure because of this law.
This law means that if you’re a parent, you can keep your kids on your
plan until they turn 26. If you’re a senior, or an American with a
disability, this law gives you discounts on your prescriptions. You
can’t be charged more just because you’re a woman. And you can’t be
discriminated against just for having a pre-existing condition.
This law is working exactly as it’s supposed to –
and in some ways, better than we expected it to. So far more than 16
million uninsured Americans have gained coverage. Nearly one in three
Americans who was uninsured a few years ago is insured today. The
uninsured rate in America is the lowest since we began to keep such
records.
The law has helped hold the price of health care to
its slowest growth in 50 years. If your family gets insurance through
the workplace, not through the Affordable Care Act, you’re paying about
$1,800 less per year on average than you would be if trends before this
law had continued – which is good for workers and it’s good for the
economy.
The point is, this is not some abstract political
debate. For all the misinformation campaigns, and doomsday predictions;
for all the talk of death panels and job destruction; for all the
repeal attempts – this law is helping tens of millions of Americans.
This isn’t just about Obamacare. This is health care in America.
With this case behind us, we’re going to keep
working to make health care in America even better and more affordable,
and to get more people covered. But it is time to stop refighting
battles that have been settled again and again. It’s time to move on.
Because as Americans, we don’t go
backwards, we move forwards. We take care of each other. We root for
one another’s success. We strive to do better, to be better, than the
generation before us, and we try to build something better for the
generation coming behind us. With this behind us, let’s come together
and keep building something better right now.
President Obama isn’t going to sit back and enjoy
his administration’s victory. Obama is looking to expand the reach of
the law by getting more people covered. The President can do this by
aggressively promoting the law. He doesn’t need Congress, or a new piece
of legislation.
The administration has been quietly at work trying
to persuade those states that haven’t expanded Medicaid to do so. The
President can use the platform of the presidency to aggressively promote
the law.
The political battlefield has shifted from President
Obama and Democrats defending the law to Republicans being knocked back
on their heels as healthcare in the United States is changing forever.
President Obama is moving forward, and the Republican cabal’s bad week just got a whole lot worse.
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