It's March 2012, the second anniversary of when our wonderful president took a bill that no one read and shoved it down the throats of the American people. Shall we celebrate? Well, we can celebrate that the Supreme Court will be ruling on Obamacare's Constitutionality. Just the fact that it had to go to the Supreme Court shows how widely controversial the law is. As much as I respect the SCOTUS and appreciate that our forefathers had the foresight to appoint a high court, I have doubts they are unbiased. After all, Barack Obama appointed Elena Kagen to the court after she acted as his attorney before she was appointed. But who's paying attention, right? Definitely not the media. Everything about this law makes my skin crawl. Even the parts that sounded good left me wondering, where is the catch? There always was one.
I remember Obama selling his health care bill. He gave the same talking points over and over: "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor", "Health care premium costs will go down" and "Taxes will not go up one single dime. We will pay for the law by cutting the waste and fraud from Medicare". It sounded great! It sounded too good to be true. It was. My husband and I have seen our insurance premiums go up three times since the bill was passed into law. Our copays are higher too. The CBO recently reported that Obamacare is going to cost taxpayers a lot more than originally stated. As Congressman Paul Ryan said during that infamous "Health Care Summit", the bill was full of schemes, smoke and mirrors. In short? Obama lied. We were duped. Well, not all of us. There was the Tea Party that held peaceful protests. There also was a good number of us writing, calling and faxing congressmen in hopes of swaying their decisions.
The American people were not the only victims of the deception. There were so many members of Congress who were given promises and probably threats too. There is one that particularly stands out to me. Two years later, we never even hear his name mentioned anymore - Bart Stupak. Congressman Stupak was a Democrat who had strong convictions about abortion. He was sort of the leader of a small group who would not agree to the bill if included government-funded abortions - the "Stupak 11". Stupak was firm; he wanted that part of the bill changed or he wouldn't agree. There were countless interviews with Stupak on television where he stated his views about abortion.
Stupak must have actually been one of the few who read the bill. He found a clause which stated, "$1 per month for all enrollees must go into a fund for reproductive care which includes abortion coverage." He was criticized by many of his fellow Democrats. He insisted that the language had to be changed. Stupak said, "We're not going to bypass some principles and beliefs that we feel strongly about." The pressure was on.
It was announced that the House was going to take a vote on a Sunday, March 21st. All the pundits were saying that Nancy Pelosi wouldn't have called for a vote if she didn't have the numbers. I remember it was more stressful than a tied basketball game with thirty seconds on the clock. We were glued to our T.V. sets. The Democrats seemed to be scrambling; they didn't have all the votes yet. It looked like it was over when there was announcement. Bart Stupak and his gang would vote in favor of the bill. President Obama promised to write an executive order stating that the Affordable Care Act would not fund abortions.
I was shocked; an executive order? Could he do that? Yes, but if the language in the bill was not changed, there was no guarantee abortions wouldn't be government-funded. How could Stupak agree to an Executive Order?
It's been over three years since the Affordable Care Act was passed - or should I say - shoved down the throats of the American people. October 1st of this year, Americans will start to sign up for the "exchanges" in their state. However, only seventeen states have set up the exchanges. That's not even half of the country! The federal government will manage the exchanges in the other thirty-three states.
But will the law pay for abortions?
In the usual political jargon of the Obama Administration, I found this line
in the:
ABORTION PROVISIONS IN THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
"There is no requirement in ACA that health care plans cover abortion,
nor is there a prohibition preventing plans from covering abortion. Rather, ACA gives health care plans participating in state exchanges the ability to determine whether or not to cover abortion
services."
So they answer is yes...and no. Then blame it on the Republicans.
