“Madam, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.”
— Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), at a town hall meeting on health care reform in August 2009.
Health Reform Gets Another Bump?
On the same day that the Supreme Court granted review of President
Obama’s health care reform law over the constitutionality of the mandate
that all Americans have health insurance, a new CNN/Opinion Research poll finds Americans approving of the provision, a marked improvement since June.
Key
findings: “According to the poll, 52% of Americans favor mandatory
health insurance, up from 44% in June. The survey indicates that 47%
oppose the health insurance mandate, down from 54% in early summer.”
Paul Krugman:
“Since that’s the core of health reform, this basically means that
proponents are slowly winning the argument. If we make it to actual full
implementation, this reform will be irreversible.”
Supreme Court to Hear Health Care Challenge
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to President Obama’s sweeping health care reform law, CNN reports.
Oral arguments will likely be held in late February or March, with a ruling by June.
SCOTUS Blog has the details.
Court Says Health Care Law is Constitutional
President Obama’s signature healthcare law got a boost when an appeals court agreed with a lower court that dismissed a challenge and found the law’s mandate that everyone buy health insurance was constitutional, Reuters reports.
Said one judge: “It certainly is an encroachment on individual liberty, but it is no more so than a command that restaurants or hotels are obliged to serve all customers regardless of race.”
The Wall Street Journal notes today’s ruling comes as the Supreme Court is scheduled to
discuss several challenges to the health-care overhaul during the
justices’ private conference. “The court decides during its
closed-door conferences which cases it will consider in the coming
months. The high court isn’t required to hear a health-care case, but
given the disagreement in the lower courts, it is highly likely to do
so.”
Drop in Support for Health Care Law
A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows the health care reform law’s popularity hit an all-time low this month.
Just 34% of those surveyed said they have a favorable view while 51% said they have an unfavorable view.
Politico: “That’s more lopsided than most of the Kaiser tracking polls have found since President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law. In most cases, the public has been about evenly split in its views of the law. The big difference this time is that Democrats seem to be souring on the reform law.”
