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Saturday, October 19, 2013

Republican lawmakers have engaged in 'massive resistance' to the Affordable Care Act.

I really do not like posting all this political stuff, but it's important to call people's attention to what's going on, who's doing it, and how it affects them.  All too frequently, it's also necessary to point out the information due to the ethical implications.

From MSN Money:

Henry Aaron, a renowned health care economist and senior fellow at think tank the Brooking Institute, compares the red state movement against Obamacare to the 1950s policy of "massive resistance," the name given to efforts by some politicians in the South to prevent black children from attending school with white students after the Supreme Court's landmark desegregation ruling. Indeed, a September survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that 23 percent of adults want elected officials to try to make it fail.

"The idea that you have a duly passed law, confirmed by the courts, that is affecting tens of millions of people, and you have state officials doing everything in their power to block the enforcement of the law of the land," says Aaron, "is in the same corner of the box, so to speak, as a massive resistance." ...

The real losers in this fight may be the consumers who actually want health insurance in those states. They may have to pay higher prices for coverage, which some critics have blamed on lawmakers’ relinquishing control of the marketplace. And if constituents approach their state representatives with questions about the law, some Republican congressional representatives decline to answer. ...

Indeed, much of the obstructionist regulation has focused on blocking assistance for consumers -- either literally banning navigators from certain locations, as in Florida; creating other barriers, such requiring navigators to pay fees or obtain surety bonds; threatening to penalize navigators who go beyond their job capacity; or requiring the navigators to undergo additional tests and training.

Read more:
Obamacare: It's a different law in red states



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