Obama expected to tout health law, not Insure Tennessee

President Obama said with only a third of uninsured Americans covered under the Affordable Care Act, new ideas are still needed.

Fresh from another Supreme Court proof of his signpost healthcare jurisprudence, President Barack Obama traveled to healthcare hub Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday to get state states to extend the Medicaid health and fitness plan regarding the weak.

“Tennessee has a history of bipartisan, smart, state specific efforts”, Obama said.

Tennessee has been one of the president’s favorite Republican-led states to visit in recent months. Under the law, states have the option to expand Medicaid eligibility to individuals who earn about $16,000 a year – with the federal government covering much of the cost. If Obama came to their state and declared his support for puppies, more than a few of them might consider mounting a puppy extermination campaign. Almost a week ago, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of President Barack Obama’s signature law.

But “if the state hasn’t taken action on one part of the program, then even with the good work that’s being done for people who are getting subsidies and purchasing insurance, you’re still leaving a bunch of folks out”, Obama said. In Nashville, he talked about making sure people know about the law’s benefits, including free preventive care, help for seniors on prescription medication and prohibitions on insurers denying coverage based on a prior illness.

Obama visited an elementary school in a northeast Nashville neighborhood and spoke about his health care overhaul, known officially as the Affordable Care Act, which was upheld by the USA Supreme Court last week. The 21 states that have refused the expansion have ignored the lobbying of hospitals, a parade of nonpartisan studies finding that taking the expansion is an economic boon and the simple morality of letting so many people go without insurance when there’s a pot of money just waiting to pay for it. Is there any reason to think it’s going to change in the previous year and a half of Obama’s presidency?

Natoma Canfield, a cancer survivor from Ohio, had written at the time that she was forced to get rid of her health insurance when she was unable to afford her monthly premium.

Opponents of the law claimed that the actual wording of the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress made subsidies available only to insurance customers who bought their policies through “an exchange established by the state” where the policyholders live.

“I never imagined in my wildest dreams that anyone would read it, let alone him”, Bryant said in her introduction.

“I agree that healthcare is a human right and I’m here today because I feel that the Affordable Care Act takes a big step forward in securing that right for millions of Americans across the country”, said Krystin Racine of Vermont.

Without expansion, 6.9 million low-income Americans, including 292,000 in Tennessee, will not get Medicaid assistance, said the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“The challenge with reconciliation is you can’t repeal the whole thing”, said Lanhee J. “Washington is kind of a mad place”.