Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA, speaks outside the Supreme Court on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court voted in a 5-4 decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. “Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a clear, unambiguous, and complete victory for long-overdue health care reform. It sends an unmistakable message that the building of a better, fairer health care system will continue to move forward,” Pollack said. Photo by Nicole Softness, APHA.
In a 5-4 decision Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court of the United States voted to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a 2010 law to improve the health of Americans and control health care costs. Writing in the majority ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts said “Nothing in our opinion precludes Congress from offering funds under the ACA to expand the availability of health care, and requiring that states accepting such funds comply with the conditions on their use.”
Leaders from numerous organizations quickly weighed in on the Supreme Court’s decision. Among the responses:
“Whatever the politics, today’s decision was a victory for people all over this country whose lives will be more secure because of this law and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold it.” — President Barack Obama
“This is an important victory, as now millions of women and their families can be ensured better health care and preventive services. It is worth noting that the Supreme Court is only 33 percent women, but women made the difference in this decision.” — Terry O’Neill, President of the National Organization for Women
“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a clear, unambiguous, and complete victory for long-overdue health care reform. It sends an unmistakable message that the building of a better, fairer health care system will continue to move forward. Implementing health reform will provide peace of mind for our families – the peace of mind that only comes when our loved ones are sure to receive the health care they need when they need it.” — Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA
“We are pleased that the Supreme Court found the majority of the Affordable Care Act constitutional. We look forward to the continued implementation of this critically important legislation so that millions of Americans can continue to receive the benefits it provides.” — A. Barry Rand, Chief Executive Officer of AARP
“In upholding the health care reform law today, the Supreme Court has preserved essential disease prevention initiatives that will help reduce the staggering health and financial toll of tobacco use.” — Matthew L. Myers, President of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
“The ruling is a victory for people with cancer and their families nationwide, who for decades have been denied health coverage, charged far more than they can afford for lifesaving care and forced to spend their life savings on necessary treatment, simply because they have a pre-existing condition.” — John Seffrin, CEO of American Cancer Society
“Health reform is here to stay, and our active engagement will make it a success.” — Prevention Institute
“For the 122 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, including the 7.3 million with some form of heart disease or stroke who are uninsured, this decision will likely be met with a great sigh of relief.” — Nancy Brown, CEO of American Heart Association
“This law takes significant steps to ensure the public has increased access to free preventive services that improve health, prevent disease and lower long-term costs.” — Ethan A. Bergman, President of Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
“For these people and the millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions, the uncertainty is over.” — Jim Guest, President of Consumer Reports
“Now is the time for viable solutions, not angry rhetoric. We urge the administration and members of Congress from both parties to swiftly launch a substantive national dialogue on how to move forward – together with the private sector – on transforming our health care system. — Julie Barnes, Director of Health Policy at Bipartisan Policy Center
“The Supreme Court ruling today upholding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as the law of the land is a significant victory for people with HIV infection and the public health of our nation. The ACA corrects the injustices of our current health system, which often denies health insurance coverage to those who need it the most. Too many of our patients have died prematurely despite the availability of effective HIV treatment due to late diagnosis and poor access to health care services.” — Judith A. Aberg, Chair at HIV Medicine Association
“The end to HIV in the United States is in our sight. The Supreme Court’s ruling upholds the ACA’S pivotal provisions that keep us on the course that has been outlined by the first-ever National HIV/AIDS Strategy and by the significant treatment and prevention advances that we’ve seen over the last year.” — Victor Barnes, Interim President and CEO of AIDS United
“Regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision, it does not change the mission of emergency physicians. We pledge to be there for our patients.
However, while there are provisions in the law to benefit emergency patients, it is clear that emergency visits will increase, as we have already seen nationwide. There are physician shortages and there are also drug shortages and serious mismatches between patient needs and available resources.” — David Seaberg, President of the American College of Emergency Physicians
“This day will go down in history as the day when Americans lost a part of their freedom – the freedom to choose what to buy with their money.” — Karen Harned, Executive Director of National Federation of Independent Business
“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s decision has completely unshackled the federal government of virtually any remaining limits on federal power over states and private individuals so long as Congress defines it as a ‘tax’. This was not what our Founding Fathers intended.” — Roberta Combs, President of Christian Coalition of America
5 comments
Public health reacts to Supreme Court’s ACA ruling: ‘Surprised and then ecstatic’ – The Pump Handle says:
Jun 28, 2012
[...] here for a good round-up of reactions to the ruling from both supporters and opponents. To read the [...]
Brenda Williams says:
Jun 28, 2012
We all seem to think health insurance companies are all powerful and we should bow down to them.They profit obscenely from us.We the people of this United States have a right to Affordable Care!So What if the Federal Government Takes Over.The Federal Government Employs Americans too!
Public health reacts to Supreme Court’s ACA ruling: ‘Surprised and then ecstatic’ [The Pump Handle] | says:
Jun 28, 2012
[...] here for a good round-up of reactions to the ruling from both supporters and opponents. To read the [...]
Siti says:
Nov 14, 2012
Yes. In premium, doctor visits, prescription drugs, contact lenses, and necessarily surgery or purchases are deductible. Over the counter drugs and unnecessarily surgery like boob jobs are not.You add them all up, substract any medical reimb and thats your medical tax deduction. but it is limited to 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income, so if you make too much money you most likely cant take the benefit. If you want to save more money, add in you over the counter drugs.
Linci says:
Nov 14, 2012
1. Almost 78 percent of iseurnd Massachusetts residents receive their coverage through anemployer There must be some qualifiers missing (residents of a certain age, maybe?) but since we’re almost all iseurnd, and 20% of us are on Medicare, and 20% of us are on Medicaid, and at least 1% of us buy our insurance individually then that only leaves 59% that could be getting insurance through employers (and I don’t think it’s that high)2. The 2006 law created the Health Safety Net Trust Fund to replace the state’sUncompensated Care Pool, with continued funding from a combination of private and publicsector revenue sources. It appears he is calling direct taxes such as on hospital admissions and insurance premiums private revenue sources while calling general appropriations made from indirect tax sources public. Interesting public accounting concept.3. A state report on health care cost trends found that, on average,premiums per member per month in the individual merged market were 33 percent lower in2008 than premiums in the pre-reform, non-group market. I think what the state report really found was that a 50 year old in 2008 paid less than a 50 year old in 2005, after the merger of the two markets because individuals could then pay small group rates. But in 2008, the 2005 50-year-old, by then 53, was still paying a lot more that 3 years earlier simply by staying alive. And it’s all kind of a yawn since there were less than 50,000 people covered by people buying insurance individually in 2005. That number is now getting up around 80,000 because of fewer people being offered insurance through employment4. Related, somewhere the author talks about more employers offering insurance but it is important to note that they are offering it to fewer of their employees5. I don’t see mention that most self iseurnd plans are exempt from the reform rules and that most employer sponsored insurance is self iseurnd (that being said, self insurers typically lead in providing excellent healthcare insurance; the point is that they don’t do it because the state tells them to)