Julian Pecquet expects continued attacks on and challenges to the ACA. “Its first life-or-death experience lies in the hands of the Supreme Court, which could potentially strike down the Affordable Care Act as early as June. Even if the high court upholds the law, it could remove its individual mandate […] Every Republican presidential candidate has vowed to repeal the law, through executive orders and by signing repeal legislation. Republicans are expected to keep control of the House, and with Democrats defending 23 seats in the Senate, the GOP has a shot at gaining the 60-member majority needed to get anything through.” Austin’s comment: The outcome of the 2012 election is the most important factor in the future of health reform and structural changes to Medicare.
Crisis line tries to save suicidal veterans, writes Christina Ginn. There is an epidemic of suicide among veterans in the U.S., but there are resources to help. Don’s comment: Even as the Iraq war ended yesterday, this piece points out that our nation will be dealing with the aftermath of this war as well as the one in Afghanistan for many years. 1-800-273-8255 is a crisis line that any vet can call to receive help, or you can send a text to 838255 or go to http://www.veteranscrisisline.
And now there’s concern over deadlines for the federal government’s health-care exchange, writes Julie Appleby. “With many states unwilling or unable to get insurance exchanges operational by the health-care law’s deadline of Jan. 1, 2014, pressure is growing on the federal government to do the job for them. But health-care experts are starting to ask whether the fallback federal exchange called for in the 2010 law will be operational by the deadline in states that will not have their exchanges ready.” Aaron’s Comment: I’ve written many times of the gamble some states are playing by not getting their exchanges ready; if they don’t the feds will take control. It’s hard to understate the importance of the federal government not falling behind if they want the ACA to succeed.
