Its the Law, For Now (Opinion)

To the surprise of many, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, now colloquially called “Obamacare.” Unless you’ve been in the Arctic trying to keep cool, you know that by now.

A colleague pointed out the term Obamacare began as something of an epithet, but now even President Obama’s administration uses it, and proudly.

Whether the administration will continue such proud use depends primarily on whether Americans come to embrace the act’s provisions as they play out over the next few years.

Many among the citizenry have indicated they support rules such as requiring insurance companies to provide coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions — particularly those Americans who have pre-existing conditions or have family who do.

If Republicans hope to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as it’s known in less partisan camps, they’ll have to work fast to use dislike of the law — of which there’s also a fair amount — to propel more of them into Congress.

That dislike centers on the individual insurance mandate, a penalty according to the act’s foes but a tax according to five Supreme Court justices.

The act seeks to expand health care coverage to everyone, and that’s expensive.

Without the mandate requiring all to buy insurance in an effort to keep premiums down, the federal health care act — maybe the entire health care system — would have collapsed.

Two things, and maybe just two, are clear: 1) The choice between Democrats and Republicans is clear this autumn and the choice comes down to “Obamacare,” and 2) This fight’s not over.