The Affordable Care Act Should Not be Repealed by the Supreme Court
October 30, 2020
Since its legalization in 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has brought health care coverage to over 23 million Americans by reducing the cost of healthcare insurance for qualified lower-income individuals. In the midst of a pandemic, it is not only wrong but cruel to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Since the beginning of the pandemic last March, 57.4 million Americans were forced to file for unemployment as COVID-19 pushed employers to shed positions from their payrolls. Out of work, newly unemployed individuals can no longer afford health insurance for their families as job-based insurance disintegrates and the ability to afford personal insurance quickly follows. The hypothetical dismissal of the Affordable Care Act by the Supreme Court essentially revokes newly uninsured workers and small business owners’ outlet to acquire affordable coverage in the midst of a global pandemic that has preyed on both our economy and the general citizenry.
Furthermore, attacks on the ACA claim to be in response to a particular mandate it presents which imposes a fine on individuals who remain uninsured. Regardless of the constitutionality of this fine, invalidating an entire statute on the basis that part of it is flawed instead of revising said flaw is nonsensical and untimely. The elimination of the ACA could lead to the immediate loss of health coverage for over twenty million Americans- and likely several thousand more who sought coverage since the beginning of the pandemic in March- in the midst of a global health crisis.
Without the ACA individuals with preexisting health conditions (i.e. asthma, cancer, etc.) will lose protections that the law has placed to guard against the exploitation of their demand for health coverage.
Aside from the obvious issues eradicating a marketplace for health insurance presents during a pandemic, without the ACA individuals with preexisting health conditions (i.e.: asthma, cancer, etc.) will lose protections that the law has placed to guard against the exploitation of their demand for health coverage. Young adults under twenty-six would no longer be able to remain on their parents’ insurance, thus demanding them to find insurance of their own which they are unlikely to find opportunity for through employment and they are also unlikely to find independently as the dominating marketplace for affordable health care would have disintegrated.
Thus, the Supreme Court should not rule in favor of invalidating the ACA, as the ACA currently protects over twenty-three million Americans from the exploitation of an unavoidably critical component of life, health care. Through its elimination, we practice an ancient form of classicism that promotes the false idea that healthcare is a privilege reserved for those who can afford it.
