Happy New Year, Losers

By William Greider, The Nation

01 January 14

hief Justice Roberts wishes a Happy New Year to all those losers who will not get healthcare insurance, thanks to his clever reading of the Constitution. There are 4.8 million of these losers, and 2.6 million of them are people of color, black and Hispanic mainly. Not that the Chief Justice and his right-wing colleagues on the Supreme Court would make racist distinctions. No, no, no. They assure us their decision is solely driven by a matter of high comstittional principle-states' rights.

The problem with these people is that they are low-income adults without dependent children-not quite poor enough to qualify for Medicaid nor old enough to qualify for Medicare. President Obama's original legislation took care of them by expanding Medicaid coverage and putting up the federal money to pay for it. The Roberts decision insisted that state governmednts have a constitutional right to reject this financial aid from Washington. And twenty-five states took him up on the offer.

This odd failure will probably be blamed on Obama but should rightly be called the "Surpeme Court gap" in unversal healthcare coverage. Because these folks do not not quite earn enough to qualify for Obamacare's tax credits to help people purchase health insurance. A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation outlined the consequences. "Most of these individuals have very limited coverage options and are likely to remain uninsured," the foundation explained.

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