Time will tell... but what will it say?

Less than two years ago, actually one year, ten months and eleven days ago to be exact, on June 25, 2015, those of us who had health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, celebrated when the Supreme Court ruled for the second time that the ACA was constitutional.  Many of us would have lost our insurance if the ruling had gone the other way because the subsidies which helped pay for health insurance would no longer be available in States like Florida, where I live, and any other States that had refused the Medicare expansion or refused to set up its own healthcare exchange.

While the Republicans had continually challenged and attempted to repeal the ACA from the moment it passed Congress and was then enacted March 23, 2010, we always knew we had one solid wall of protection:  President Obama would always veto any attempt to repeal his landmark legislation.  Democrats in Congress had been willing to commit what amounted to "political suicide" in order to ensure that every person had affordable healthcare.  Such a pro-life attitude from the political party that has been so demonized for not being pro-life.  Democrats did indeed pay the price for their votes with losses in the mid-term elections which gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives in the 2010 election and the Senate in the 2014 election.  Still though, we had President Obama to protect us.

During the 2016 election, there was so much on the line.  Healthcare, equal rights, women's rights, just to name a few.  Every vote would matter and every vote would determine not just the future of the United States, but the future of its citizens.  Those of us who understood all that could be lost and all the would be jeopardized did our best to encourage everyone to elect Hillary Clinton.  She would protect the rights we had gained just as President Obama had.  Rights that included the freedom to marry whomever we love even if the one we love happens to be the same sex as us because on June 26, 2015, a decision handed down by the Supreme Court stated that marriage between same sex couples cannot be denied in any State.  Rights that included women making their own choices regarding their bodies and having access to all types of medical care through Planned Parenthood.  Hillary Clinton also understood that the fight for equal rights for all was far from over and we still had far to go.  But one barrier, the highest glass ceiling, would have been shattered with the election of Hillary Clinton as the first woman President of the United States.

As the election results came in on November 8, 2016, those of us who had voted for Hillary Clinton, who looked forward to celebrating her victory and her leadership were shocked that she had lost.  Mixed in with that shock was some sense of dread.  Those of us who depended on the Affordable Care Act for insurance knew that with Republicans in control of the Presidency and Congress there was no one to protect us from losing our healthcare.  No one to protect the millions of people who would suffer, whether they realized it or not, without affordable healthcare.  No one to ensure that people could afford to go to the doctor, pay for prescriptions and not be bankrupted by illness.

Thursday May, 4, 2017, Republicans in the House of Representatives finally achieved what they had been promising since March of 2010.  They passed their own healthcare bill, the American Health Care Act to replace the ACA.  A bill which will negatively affect millions of Americans regardless of whether they have insurance through the ACA, their employers or even Medicare.  The ones who will benefit most from this new bill are the wealthy who will receive a tax cut and business who will no longer have to provide insurance,  Additionally businesses can "shop around" for the States with the lowest basic requirements for insurance coverage.

There is some hope that the Republican controlled Senate will not vote for the current bill but will write their own bill.  If that happens, then members from the House and Senate will meet to write another bill which must then be passed by the House and Senate before reaching the President's desk for his signature.  The hope is that the new bill will not pass the House because of  whatever changes were made.  There is also some hope that the bill would never pass the Senate because no Democrat will vote for the bill.  However by using reconciliation, which would mean a simple majority of 51 votes rather than the necessary 60 votes, Republicans in the Senate could succeed in passing the bill.

Time will tell whether the Republicans will be successful in passing their own healthcare bill before the 2018 elections.  If they have not passed a bill before the 2018 elections, will everyone who will lose healthcare benefits end Republican control of the House or Senate or both?

Time will tell... and in the mean time... millions of people wait to see what happens, knowing their fate is the hands of people who are trying to take away their health insurance.

So time will tell, but what will it say?