It Ain't Over

I heard from someone down South today. They were crossing into South Carolina from Georgia. Over the South Carolina line, the American flags were flying at half-mast. Nobody important died. It was in mourning for yesterday's Supreme Court's decision on the health care bill.

After two years of inflammatory rhetoric promising the certain end of freedom should this bill be enacted, many, many people believe it. For a long time, this belief could be sustained on the hope that the court would find it unconstitutional, or that congress would devise some way to pull the plug. But the reality is setting in that the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. With less than a year and a half from its main provisions taking effect, if you don't like it, it's time to get specific about what you don't like. It's not going away on its own.

As a nation we accept the general principle that our individual freedoms are circumscribed by our legal frameworks. We believe in the system. This law isn't perfect, but it now belongs to all of us. The bill was passed and it's no longer up for debate on constitutional grounds. Griping about the death of freedom is all well and good, but if you really want to do something about it, it's time to call your congressman and demand reforms.

Let's look at the individual mandate. It's a provision in the Affordable Care Act that compels people to retain health insurance coverage, or else pay a tax amounting to no more than 3.5% of personal income. It's also the least popular part of the law that people know about. The mandate is essentially a tax is managed by the IRS, but the money goes directly to a fund to help pay for other people's insurance premiums. Unlike other taxes, the IRS doesn't have the authority to impose criminal penalties for non-compliance. If you don't have insurance, all they can do is garnish your tax refund, and if you can demonstate financial hardship, the tax is waived altogether.

Is this the death of freedom? If so, then we need to talk about the tax benefits I enjoy from being married, or massive deductions in mortgage interest that forego from not owning a house. Even though I want to be a married homeowner, I don't want the government telling me I should be. I question the social value of those rules, but I'm not about to take up arms. It's just not that big a deal. The tax system is riddled with incentives and penalties. If you don't like them, call your congressman and demand reforms. Start a web site. Get a dozen people to call and they will listen. You are not powerless.

But consider this: Young people can now stay on their parents' plans until they are 26. Uninsured people with pre-existing conditions (like my mom) can now get good insurance for cheap. Insurance companies can no longer have lifetime limits on benefits, and cannot turn away sick kids. They have to spend 80% of your premiums on actual health care, or else give you a rebate check. In 2014, if you don't have coverage, you will be guaranteed a decent plan that costs no more than 11% of your annual income. The government will pick up some or most of the tab for families of 4 making less than $90,000 a year. And it's paid for.

If you don't like those provisions, by all means, call your congressman. If you didn't know them by now, and you didn't like the Affordable Care Act, then maybe you should rethink where you stand and who you trust. 

This isn't the system I would have designed, but for me there is only one non-negotiable abstract principle: universal health coverage is a human right. If there is another way achieve that goal, I'm all ears. More specific to our realities, if there's another way to incentivize the healthy people we need to buy insurance, I'll listen. Seriously.

But I have no more patience for the partisan blowhards and their abstract claims to liberty. If people can't be bothered to inform themselves on what they like and don't like about the bill, they forfiet their right to complain. If they choose to ignore the good and overdramatize the bad, then they are not acting in our nation's interests. If they have real concerns about the bill, I'm listening. We all should.

If our leaders still can't come to the negotiating table after two years of near-existential political warfare, lost court battles, and unending bad faith, then they should be replaced. It's well past time.