June 27, 2015
Stop Celebrating - Get to Work
By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq.
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – The morning of June 25, 2015 brought us another civil rights milestone. On that morning the Supreme Court affirmed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and gave it a new lease-on-life. Likeminded friends and I shared the news on the telephone, texting and with emails. For us it was a day of jubilation that equaled or surpassed any other day in recent memory regarding healthcare. I‘m still abuzz with the news and I’m positive about the healthcare outcomes of millions of my fellow Americans.
It is my firm belief that Obamacare is one giant step toward unshackling the chains of corporate oppression from the masses. It removes millions of men, women and children from the ranks that the uncaring, who already have the best of care, designate as acceptable casualties. Those who’ve become more well off than a good life requires often made it to where they are on the backs of the very people they would now deny the right to have a decent health plan. There is a great deal to celebrate!
I've previously stated the reasons for my support of Obamacare on numerous occasions, but for those who’ve forgotten, those who do not know or who’ve been propagandized by the constant flow of (negative) disinformation from the Republican Party and their allies in the news media, I will reiterate.
Before Obamacare, millions of poor Americans, including poor white people, flooded the nation's emergency rooms for their primary care. They had no choice. In the past, Americans visiting emergency rooms witnessed numerous patients with non-critical ailments or ailments which could have been more appropriately managed in a doctor's office. In those cases, immediate medical care was not denied at the emergency room. Those without insurance or unable to pay for their care were treated anyway. Anyone with an ounce of sense, however, can understand that someone had to pay. Payments for those medical services were made through the general tax fund of local jurisdictions and those costs were extended to all taxpaying citizens of each emergency room's respective jurisdiction. Whatever your opinion of Obamacare, every taxpaying citizen will realize relief from a tax burden that few choose to acknowledge.
One of the pre-Obamacare catastrophes was the inability to obtain insurance coverage for individuals with pre-existing medical conditions. Individuals whose medical insurance was a part of their employment package could not be re-insured if they had a disqualifying medical condition. More than a small number of individuals and families fell into bankruptcy as a consequence of pre-existing medical conditions. We have heard stories of people dying because they could not afford insulin or some other regularly used medication. There are stories of young people having no insurance because while in college or before they were able to find a job, they were not covered under the plan of their parents.
In the first paragraph of this article you’ll recall that I remarked that the Supreme Court gave Obamacare a new lease-on-life. That new lease-on-life is less than two years long if a Republican is elected President and the Republicans retain their majorities in Congress. That's where the GET TO WORK comes into play. Republicans have shown their hatred for the President and his signature healthcare plan. They’ve made over 50 attempts to repeal it without offering a replacement plan. Some have resigned themselves to the fact that they’ll, at least, have to live with the law until they control the Legislative and Executive Branches.
We must do the work now to elect officials who will protect Obamacare. We hold the destiny of our health in our hands. Republicans have shown they’ll take it away if we allow them to do so. We must begin working today to keep it.
(Dr. E. Faye Williams is President of the National Congress of Black Women. www.nationalcongressbw.org. 202/678-6788)