The ACA aka Obamacare was upheld to my personal delight - my husband and I have filed for bankruptcy this week and a huge percentage of the reason is medical expenses we haven't been able to pay. The ACA means fewer Americans will have to face financial ruin because they have to go to a hospital.
I am now hopeful that come 2014 I will have insurance again, if I can't get it before that.
I am not surprised that the Republican Party is trying to spin this as a huge tax increase, it is after all the only song they know. But the easiest way to kill that spin is to call the tax what it is: The Freeloader's Tax. The only people who will pay that penalty are people who refuse to buy health insurance. People who want to freeload on the system, who think that just because they're healthy now they don't need health insurance.
I don't have insurance right now but God know I want it. I was on Washington State's Basic Health until I got booted from the roles through a 'clerical oversight' (which happened just about the time the economy tanked, go figure). But the ACA means Washington State will be able to cover 500,000 more people! A half-million people who won't have to go through bankruptcy, who will be able to make sure their kids get their asthma medication, or who will detect colon cancer or breast cancer when its treatable.
In Massachusetts where the ACA has been proven effective, less than 1% of the population pays the penalty. That penalty means that when those people get hit by a car or catch pneumonia the cost of their care is at least partially covered by the penalty, which drives down the cost of health care for everyone.
That's a half-million happy endings at the cost of a few freeloaders who want to skate.
I'll take that deal any day of the week.