Republicans, Democrats jockey before Supreme Court health-care ruling

The talking points also advised against repeating the Democrats’ “mistake,” and rushing to pass “a massive bill the American people don’t support.” But divisions are cropping up among House Republicans. Some, like Rep. Phil Gingrey (R) of Georgia, a physician who heads the GOP Doctors Caucus, want to ensure that people with preexisting conditions are still able to purchase insurance. Other provisions popular with the public – see young adults on parents’ insurance – get Republican backing, and could be introduced as stand-alone legislation.  

But some conservatives are adamant that no aspect of Obama’s reform should survive. “I don’t want any vestige of Obamacare left in law,” Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa said last month, according to Politico. “Not one particle of DNA.”

House Democrats, for their part, have been given statistics-filled pocket cards to carry around, The New York Times reports. Per the cards, 86 million people have received free preventive care; 105 million people no longer face a lifetime cap on benefits; and up to 17 million children cannot be denied coverage due to preexisting conditions.

If the reform is thrown out in part or in total, it will certainly be an embarrassment to Obama. But the Democrats can argue that they gave it their best shot and the Supreme Court undid their work. There are already suggestions that Democrats will claim political motivations on the part of the court’s conservative justices.

“You’ve now seen a series of what seem to be extremely partisan decisions out of the Supreme Court, from Bush v. Gore to Citizens United to taking on the Affordable Care Act months before the election,” says Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank close to the White House. Ms. Tanden was also part of Obama’s White House health-reform team.

If the court strikes down the whole law, that would be “an incredible act of judicial activism at a time where you’ve already seen the standing of the court declining,” Tanden continues. “I hope the ACA will disprove that theory, and they follow precedent.”

But as pained as the Democrats will be if Obama’s reform is tossed out, in whole or in part, it’s the Republicans who could face bigger political pressure. The ball will be in their court. Mitt Romney, the likely GOP presidential nominee, outlined a plan June 12 to make the health-insurance system more like a “consumer market,” in which competition drives down prices and boosts quality.

Mr. Romney said it was important to make sure “every American has access to good health care,” but that it was the states’ job to care for people in the way they feel is best. He also said his plan would cover people with preexisting conditions.

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney instituted a health-insurance reform with an individual mandate that served as the model for Obama’s reform. That fact proved problematic during the GOP primaries; but now that Romney has effectively won his party’s nomination, he can speak more freely.

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