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Health Care Act undergoes healthy debate

01 Apr 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In the first reading for Palm Sunday, the prophet Isaiah speaks of having received “a well-trained tongue” from the Lord, who each morning also “opens” the prophet’s ear. Lawyers who have been before the U.S. Supreme Court this week to argue the case for or against the Affordable Care Act hope their well-trained tongues may have opened the ears of the justices to their side of the argument in this historic case. By the time oral arguments ended this week, supporters were rattled by the skeptical consideration of the landmark health-care legislation, with legal scholars and others observing that a majority of the justices were at least giving serious consideration to striking down the law’s key provision, an individual mandate to obtain health insurance, and even perhaps the entire law. That has prompted a larger conversation about what happens if they do choose either of those paths. Predicting the result in any Supreme Court case, much less one that will define the legacies of a president and a chief justice, is nothing like a science, and the case could still turn in various directions. But the available evidence indicated that the heart of the Affordable Care Act is in peril. A ruling is not expected until June. White House officials are refusing publicly to consider that the law might be struck down or to discuss contingency plans, insisting that they do not address hypothetical questions. Other Democrats have begun assessing how such an outcome could affect the political landscape of 2012, but supporters argue that on a substantive level the results would be devastating. “This would be a great loss, obviously, to the American people,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) “The status quo with respect to the health insurance system was unacceptable to the American people. This was an answer to a very real problem.” Republicans have said they could keep the law’s more popular provisions, such as barring insurers from denying coverage because of preexisting conditions. But supporters say it’s not possible to pay for that provision without requiring the tens of millions of Americans who are currently uninsured to purchase coverage. The arguments before the court “certainly didn't go as well as the government would have hoped," said Stephen I. Vladeck, professor of law at the American University Washington College of Law. “But there's a reason why we don’t count votes at the end of oral arguments. And indeed there’s plenty of history to suggest that even though the justices at this moment are leaning toward striking it down, there’s not a guarantee that where they are today is where they'll be in June.” Sources: Articles by Amy Gardner for the Washington Post, Adam Liptakfor the New York Times, and Ariane de Vogue for ABC News

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Both sides dig in for shutdown showdown

06 Oct 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“How long, O Lord?” is the plaintive cry of the frustrated prophet in this Sunday’s first reading. Witnessing the behavior of a combative U.S. Congress unable to resolve a budget showdown that has shuttered many government agencies, many Americans are asking the same question. But while Republicans want to derail or stall healthcare reform, President Barack Obama and Democrats respond, as in the first reading, “it will surely come” and “will not disappoint.”After weeks of talking past each other, congressional leaders and the president talked to each other Wednesday evening. The White House meeting served at least one purpose, in that key players in the debate gathered together in the same room for over an hour: Obama called it "useful," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said it was "worthwhile," and House Speaker John Boehner cast it as a "polite conversation." But while the sides talked, there was no indication they agreed on anything or even shifted their views—but emerged evidently no closer to a deal to halt the government's budget stalemate.“This shutdown is not about deficits. It’s not about budgets,” Obama had said Tuesday, flanked in the White House Rose Garden by about a dozen uninsured people who will be eligible for benefits under the Affordable Care Act. “This shutdown is about rolling back our efforts to provide health insurance to folks who don’t have it. This, more than anything else, seems to be what the Republican Party stands for these days. I know it’s strange that one party would make keeping people uninsured the centerpiece of their agenda, but that apparently is what it is."”At times like this, the American people expect their leaders to come together to find ways to resolve their differences,” said Speaker of the House John Boehner said. “The president reiterated one more time tonight that he will not negotiate,” to which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid responded, “We’re through playing these little games.”Homily hint: While politicians dig their heels in during the shutdown, dozens of businesses in and around Washington are showing their solidarity by offering furloughed employees free or discounted food and activities. There’s a lesson there for all of us: When we support each other, all of us are made stronger. Sources: Articles by Karen Tumulty, Lori Montgomery, Debbi Wilgoren, Monica Hesse,Lisa Rein, and Dan Balz for the Washington Post, Anneta Konstantinides andNicki Rossoll for Good Morning America, and Tom Cohen and Greg Botelho for CNN

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Unhealthy delays on government website

27 Oct 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The prayers of the lowly faithful reach God expeditiously, the first reading promises this Sunday. The efforts of the uninsured to work their way through the application process on the government’s new healthcare.gov website, however, have been seriously stymied since its October 1 launch. President Barack Obama promised Monday the problems would be fixed in an expeditious manner, but many are skeptical.In a response to mounting criticism, the White House said Wednesday that it plans to soften the deadline for when Americans are required to purchase health insurance and avoid being penalized until March 31, 2014.Other critics of the healthcare law, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, have proposed delaying the individual mandate penalty until six months after the Government Accountability Office certifies that the problem-plagued healthcare website is working.As the Obama administration weighed the changes, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it will hold daily briefings to update reporters on the progress of what Obama has called the “tech surge” to rectify the hitches and glitches on the site.One survey found that only about 20 percent of people who tried to log on to government-run marketplaces were able to do so without any technical problems. Users have gotten error messages; the Spanish-language version of the site has been delayed; and programming costs have tripled. “There’s no sugarcoating it,” Obama said of the bug-ridden site Monday.Homily hint: What may be lost in the upheaval over the healthcare.gov boondoggle is the fact that millions of low-income or unemployed Americans have lacked decent healthcare at an affordable price regardless of their medical history. Let us remember that “the lowly” and the poor referred to in this Sunday’s readings deserve basic services many of us take for granted. Source: An article by Matthew DeLuca and Daniel Arkin for NBC News

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Conflicting views on contraceptive coverage

01 Dec 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“According to the decree for Israel . . . . in it are set up judgment seats, seats for the house of David,” explains the psalmist this Sunday. According to the U.S. Constitution, the highest seats of judgment are set up in the Supreme Court. That court agreed Tuesday to sit in judgment on provisions in the Affordable Care Act that touch on coverage for contraceptives and religious liberty.The healthcare act requires employers of a certain size to offer insurance coverage for birth control and other reproductive health services without a co-pay. At issue is whether private companies can refuse to do so on the claim it violates their religious beliefs.Oral arguments will likely be held in March with a ruling by late June. Nearly 50 pending lawsuits have been filed in federal court from various corporations challenging the birth control coverage benefits in the healthcare reform law championed by President Barack Obama since its inception.The high court last year narrowly upheld the key funding provision of the health care law, a blockbuster ruling affirming that most Americans would be required to purchase insurance or pay a financial penalty—the so-called "individual mandate." The constitutional debate now shifts to the separate employer mandates and whether corporations themselves enjoy the same First Amendment rights as individuals.Homily hint: The Affordable Care Act has turned out to be one of the most divisive pieces of legislation in modern times. While the issues need to be sorted out and conflict and disagreement is inevitable, strive this holiday season to be a voice of reason and a reconciliation as arguments arise at family gatherings, the workplace, on social media. Let’s all lower the volume and listen to one another. Source: An article by Bill Mears for CNN

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Some assurance for those seeking some insurance

22 Dec 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s gospel relates how Mary and Joseph lived in uncertainty as they faced unexpected circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus. Consumers facing tight insurance deadlines and uncertainty due to website performance problems during the holidays will get extra time to pay their premiums under the new healthcare law, insurers announced Wednesday.The board of the industry's biggest trade group—America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)—said consumers who select a plan by Dec. 23 will now have until Jan. 10 to make their first month's payment. That's 10 extra days beyond a New Year's Eve deadline set by the government.The voluntary move comes as insurers and the government try to head off anticipated problems around the first of the year, when new coverage options for the uninsured take effect and several million people whose existing policies were canceled must switch to new plans.The administration applauded the industry decision. It will "ultimately make it easier for consumers to enroll" through the new online insurance markets, said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Joanne Peters. The federal HealthCare.gov website is now working reasonably well, but insurers still report accuracy problems with enrollment information the government is sending about their new customers.Karen Ignagni, CEO of the industry group, said the decision was taken "to give consumers greater peace of mind about their health care coverage." AHIP represents about 95 percent of the industry, including the major national carriers and nearly all BlueCross BlueShield plans.Homily hint: Healthcare insurance has so dominated the national conversation this past quarter as to become a wearisome topic—except for those who still lack coverage as the new year looms. Websites and technology can only get us so far; at the end of the day it is people helping people which will solve this national crisis. Source: An article by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar for the Associated Press

health insurance affordable care act joanne peters karen ignagni americas health insurance plans

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More maneuvering on healthcare mandates

16 Feb 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s gospel Jesus declares he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, not leaving out “the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter.” The Obama administration has been a good deal more flexible in its carrying out of provisions of the new healthcare law, announcing Monday that it would postpone enforcement of employee mandates yet again. Republicans kept up their criticism of the law.For the second time in a year the administration is giving certain employers extra time before they must offer health insurance to almost all their full-time workers. Under new rules announced Monday by U.S. Treasury Department officials, employers with 50 to 99 workers will be given until 2016—two years longer than originally envisioned under the Affordable Care Act—before they risk a federal penalty for not complying.Companies with 100 or more workers are getting a different kind of one-year grace period. Instead of being required in 2015 to offer coverage to 95 percent of full-time employees, these bigger employers can avoid a fine by offering insurance to 70 percent of them next year.How the administration would define employer requirements has been one of the biggest remaining questions about the way the 2010 healthcare law will work in practice—and has sparked considerable lobbying. By providing the dual phase-ins for employers of different sizes, administration officials have sought to lighten the burden on the small share of affected employers who have not offered insurance in the past.Congressional Republicans seized on the announcement as the latest justification for scrapping the healthcare law. In particular they renewed their opposition to the law’s requirement that most Americans have insurance, saying it is unfair to delay rules for businesses and not for individuals.Homily hint: Perhaps out of all the partisan jostling over healthcare reform this country might actually end up with a fairly balanced policy that takes a variety of points of view into consideration. While employers certainly have legitimate cost concerns, an individual’s right to healthcare coverage at a reasonable price must also be safeguarded and expanded. Let’s find common ground and move forward to respond to the challenges. Sources: Articles by Juliet Eilperin and Amy Goldstein for the WashingtonPost and Louise Radnofsky and Theo Francis for the Wall Street Journal

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Healthy showing at health care coverage deadline

06 Apr 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Even though Lazarus had fallen seriously ill, the Sunday gospel tells us that Jesus was confident “this illness is not to end in death.” And as this Sunday’s first reading illustrates, belonging to the Lord means total confidence, even in the shadow of death. The Obama administration celebrated a milestone Tuesday, saying seven million more people now have confidence that should they fall seriously ill they have insurance coverage because of the Affordable Care Act."I think it is fair to say we surpassed everybody's expectations," spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday, noting that 7,041,000 people had signed up before a midnight Monday deadline. Carney said more than 200,000 people registered on Monday on a federal website, and the number was expected to rise as data came in from the states.Though the scramble to sign up for insurance plans at the end of a six-month enrollment window caused website glitches and long lines at on-the-spot enrollment centers, senior White House officials saw the deadline day rush as vindication after the disastrous rollout of the federal health care website—HealthCare.gov—late last year.“Armageddon has not arrived,” the president said to an audience of White House staff members and supporters. “Instead, this law is helping millions of Americans, and in the coming years it will help millions more.”Republicans kept up their criticism of the law, saying it will hurt small businesses and expand government waste, but in his remarks Tuesday Obama proclaimed himself mystified by the continuing assault on the legislation.“It’s helping people from coast to coast, all of which makes the lengths to which critics have gone to scare people or undermine the law or try to repeal the law without offering any plausible alternative so hard to understand,” Obama said. “I’ve got to admit, I don’t get it. Why are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance?”Homily hint: With all the emphasis on healthcare insurance and legislation, it is easy to forget the human suffering that attends serious illness. While insurance helps, people who are seriously ill also need assurance—that a loving God is with them in this difficult moment. That is the confidence the readings speak of this Sunday. Sources: Articles by Agence France Presse and Michael D. Shear and Robert Pear for the New York Times

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Take care with Obamacare repeal and replace

15 Jan 2017 - Preaching the News for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

After having “waited, waited for the Lord,” the psalmist is able to affirm that the Lord’s “law is within my heart!” The American people have been waiting to see how Republican lawmakers plan to handle the Affordable Care Act (ACA) now that they control all the levers of government. And it seems an overwhelming majority of the public disapprove of any plan to repeal Obamacare without having a ready replacement at hand, according to a poll released last week. Judging by the letter-writing and lobbying in the first week of the new congressional session, many healthcare and business groups agree. A poll released last Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 75 percent of Americans say they either want lawmakers to leave Obamacare alone or repeal it only when they can replace it with a new healthcare law. Twenty percent of those polled say they want to see the law killed immediately. But Drew Altman, CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation, says the poll shows lawmakers don't have a strong mandate to repeal Obamacare. "Most of the American people said they're either against repealing it or they're against repealing it unless Republicans put a replacement plan on the table," Altman says. "They want to see what comes next before they see the ACA repealed." Americans are about equally divided over whether Congress should repeal Obamacare, the poll shows. But of the 48 percent who want the law rolled back, about 60 percent want lawmakers to wait until they have an alternative plan. Some observers believe Obamacare may be safer than it seems. The reason is simple but underappreciated: Because of Obamacare, Republicans have inherited an obligation to ensure access to affordable health insurance for every American—a duty the federal government didn’t have before. They could disavow the burden, but they haven’t. Indeed, President-elect Donald Trump has embraced it. During his campaign, Trump promised to enact a "beautiful new plan [for] much better healthcare at a much lower cost." After the election, he repeated the pledge, saying: "Everybody’s got to be covered." In the short run, that means Obamacare has to continue operating until a new plan is ready. Indeed, Democrats have already been taunting Republicans with what some call the Pottery Barn rule: “You break it, you own it.” “We’re talking about a three-year transition,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said. “People are being understandably cautious to make sure nobody’s dropped through the cracks.” Republicans in the Senate and House are hard at work on a new plan, drawing on conservative proposals drafted well before the election. The irony is that the drafts most likely to succeed share some basic features with Obamacare. They agree on the basic goal of universal coverage—or, at least, universal access to affordable insurance. They agree on subsidies to make it possible for low- and middle-income families to afford insurance—in most cases, in the form of tax credits (“refundable” credits, so they would go even to people who don’t pay taxes). Some Republican plans would even keep the state insurance exchanges that Obamacare set up—and in at least one case, the federal healthcare.gov exchange as well. There are big differences too, all of which make the GOP proposals less generous and less universal in coverage than Obamacare. Most of the Republican alternatives would push many people into bare-bones catastrophic insurance policies, with less coverage than Obamacare offers. (They would pay less, but get less.) They would cover fewer people too—at least 4 million fewer, according to one forecast. And there’s a controversial divergence on guaranteed coverage for people with preexisting conditions: The GOP plans provide it only for users who have maintained “continuous coverage” for some period of time. James Capretta, a conservative health policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute, believes the political imperative will be for the GOP to deliver something credible on its promises. “They’re halfway to where they need to go,” he says. "They need to make sure everybody in the country can get health insurance if they want it . . . and that the prices are right—that this looks to most Americans like a reasonable way to get health insurance. Voters and history will judge them to have failed if the end result is millions of people becoming uninsured again." Lessons drawn from the readings Republicans leaders have been attacking the healthcare law for years, with leaders such as Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all saying repeal of the law would be an immediate priority for the new Congress. They are now singing a slightly different tune. The sobering reality of the task in front of them has perhaps led them to a place similar to that of the psalmist, who, after waiting on the Lord was able to proclaim that “He put a new song into my mouth.” The gung-ho attitude seems to have cooled in recent days, as Republicans leaders have cited the need to ensure that the more than 20 million people who have gained healthcare through the ACA retain their coverage. Ryan cited the need for a "stable" transition to a replacement during a press conference Wednesday, while Vice president-elect Mike Pence stressed "an orderly and smooth transition to a market-based healthcare reform system." Other Republicans lawmakers, including Sens. Rand Paul and John McCain, also emphasized the need to be cautious on repeal without a replacement plan in place. Final thought in light of the news Healthcare reform has convulsed the nation like no other issue the over the past eight years. No other advanced industrialized nation seems to be tied into knots over healthcare the way we have been. The issue presents perhaps the greatest challenge to our nation’s ability to move forward with a sense of unity. Let’s find common ground and move forward together so that we can create a system we can all live with—literally!

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Quote of the week

15 Jan 2017 - Preaching the News for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

“In two weeks I will no longer be a politician, but I'll still be a citizen. I envy you so much right now, because I would love to be on the field.” —President Obama, in a closed-door meeting with Democratic members of Congress called to strategize about defending the Affordable Care Act Obama tells Democrats: 'Don't rescue' Republicans on 'Trumpcare'

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Fact of the week

15 Jan 2017 - Preaching the News for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

The cost of employer-provided coverage has gone up since passage of the ACA. But the annual price hikes were considerably larger in the decade before the law was passed. FACT CHECK: Once Again, Lawmakers Are Stretching The Facts On Obamacare

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