On to the next battle...

Jumble of emotions here, from sadness at Ann Curry's departure from "Today" to big discouragement when CNN initially reported that the health insurance mandate had been struck down to bigger relief when CNN reported that the entire Affordable Care Act had been upheld. (Geez, people, slow the news cycle down a bit and get it right!)

Now, I am not a lawyer and never will be. I mainly view this issue through the lens of "what will it mean for ME?" Hey, if it works for the conservatives/Tea Partiers/teabaggers, it ought to work for us liberals, right?

So when my scholarly legal friend wrote that he was rooting against the mandate, and lots of other pundits started writing/posting about what would happen if we had the rest of the law without the mandate, I started getting uncomfortable. Because what I kept reading was that when a couple of other states (not mine) adopted policies that were like the ACA without the mandate, two things happened: a lot of the insurance companies stopped doing business in the state and the price of individual (i.e., non-employer-sponsored) plans went through the roof.

As someone who may never be in a traditional employee-employer relationship again, that really concerned me.

Yeah, it's one thing to debate the constitutionality of this and the constitutionality of that, but I look at REAL PEOPLE and I started to imagine that people like ME would never be able to afford health insurance again, then come down with diseases that they can't afford to get care for, and then die needlessly. I started imagining making a choice, immediately after diagnosis, between palliative care and a quick suicide because the treatment would be too expensive. And I DESPISE suicide. HATE it with a passion.

It doesn't help that yesterday yet another one of my friends, albeit one with a stable job, found out that he has cancer. A treatable stage, but it's still cancer.

So now, with the entire ACA upheld, I'm taking a deep breath.

Yeah, this is not perfect. I would have much preferred some version of "Medicare for all." Some way to detach health insurance from employment. The trend is for people to work as freelance/temporary contractors instead of full-time employees. That does NOT mean people work any less. Some of the hardest working people in the US are the self-employed. Other REAL PEOPLE stick to jobs they hate, employers they don't get along with, just so they and their families can maintain coverage.

And this is not over. The haters are out there already, spreading their lies about the ACA. As I write this, Mitt is stepping in front of the microphones. (Note to the White House: Bad form to let him go first!) One of my lefty Facebook friends speculated that Chief Justice Roberts "took one for the team" to motivate more Republicans to get to the polls in November, and immediately one of his more conservative pals replied, "I'll be first in line in November!" So, even if you don't believe that Roberts was politically motivated, that's the effect it's going to have.

We must rise up against that effect.

REAL PEOPLE are going to be helped. Some are being helped NOW. Others will be helped in 2014, but only if people of good will get to the polls.