The Affordable Care Act was (I think) the biggest thing at stake throughout this campaign; Romney pledged to repeal it, the GOP campaigned against it, and ultimately Obama won out.
Now that Obama has been reelected, there is nothing standing in the way of full implementation of the ACA. The law cleared the two biggest hurdles en route to its final roll-out: (1) it was upheld by the Supreme Court, and (2) Obama will remain in office to see it fully implemented.
The question, then, is twofold: (1) To what extent does this destroy the GOP calls for repeal, and (2) how long before we finally start to see GOP states begrudgingly going along with it?
(2) is very interesting to me because my state (MO) once again voted to disallow the state government to set up an exchange (without state legislation or a referendum - neither of which would pass).
So I think given the political reality in those states we’re looking at a much bigger federal exchange than the law foresaw - one that is running the exchange in many red states.
Which of course brings up the irony that the red states will have federal-run health-care systems and the blue state swill have state-run health-care systems.
I was going to start a thread about the things that Obama will accomplish in his 2nd term and the actual implementation of the PPACA was at the top of the list. His being re-elected means that this will actually happen, and not just be a footnote in Petey Otterloop’s “Missed Opportunities” binder.
Even more importantly, we currently have 4 SCOTUS Justices well over 70 years of age:
[ul]Stephen Breyer (74)[/ul]
[ul]Anthony Kennedy (76)[/ul]
[ul]Antonin Scalia (76)[/ul]
[ul]Ruth Bader Ginsburg (79)[/ul]
So there’s a good chance that Obama will be eventually be responsible for having nominated more than half of our Supreme Court Justices. That is a lasting legacy that this nation will feel for generations to come. Frankly, I was surprised that it didn’t come up more during the campaign; I would have thought the Republicans would use that bogeyman to try and scare as many people into voting for Mittens as they could.
Well, if they had, then they would have been pointing out that Mittens, if elected, would likely be making several nominations, and that probably would not have improved his chances.
As for the OP, the implementation of Obamacare is something I have been holding my breath for. It is a big step towards a thing that my country truly needs. I don’t have a big social network. I have fewer facebook friends than I have fingers, yet I personally know:
Tens of smart people who would have tried starting their own businesses if only they didn’t need an employer to pay for health insurance.
A lady who stays with a physically abusive husband because her type-1 diabetes makes her un-insurable if she were to leave him. (No, I can’t convince her otherwise).
When my mom was in her old age, we had to go round-and-round with the insurance companies (they kept dropping out of market in a cyclical way) for every. single. thing. They eventually approved stuff, but it was a drain on my sister and my energy, I have no doubt that someone with only one or no advocate at all would have been denied needed care, and this was clearly the goal of the insurance companies, as it was obviously worth it to pay people to keep fighting these battles.