Friday, December 26, 2014

A Quick Personal Update on Obamacare and the Supreme Court

A personal note on this matter.  When the Supreme Court first accepted the challenge, I vowed to join up with some group bringing political pressure to save the subsidies.  Well, I have since given my name to Health Action New Mexico.  I spent one Saturday with them passing out brochures and urging people to sign up or get friends or family members signed up.  Although one man generally let it be known that he regarded the individual mandate as an outrage against freedom, most were friendly, even one who had signed up and then found out his coverage was dropped.  He was nowhere near as angry as he had the right to be.  (Being friends with the guy he was talking to no doubt helped).  They do not actually sign people up, but steer them to experts in navigating the system who can.

As for political action, right now they are mostly focused on extending coverage to dental care.  I said that extending coverage to dental care was all fine and good, but top priority really out to go to keeping the whole system from being overturned.  Their answer was that they are awaiting guidance from Families USA, their national organization, that will give them directions on what to do.  It was apparently Families USA that guided them in mobilizing support to persuade New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez (a Republican) to accept the Medicaid expansion.  And she did, though with some hesitation.  Looking at the Families USA website, it still seems focused on how best to use the system as it is now and not the danger that the Supreme Court will unravel it.  It is frustrating.

But the infrastructure is (presumably) there, anyhow.  And the local leaders say they expect to start getting guidance on what to do about the Supreme Court in January.  So we will see.

No comments:

Post a Comment