The U.S. Supreme Court will begin three days of hearing arguments on Monday about the legality of the federal health care law.
Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, says the law, which was signed two years ago today, has had a profound positive impact on the health care industry and on millions of Americans.
“I’m hopeful that they will uphold its constitutionality,” Harkin says. “Judges in the lower courts, in the circuit courts, have made it very clear, that arguments against the act lacked merit, they have no basis in law and to overturn this health reform bill would overturn 70 years of precedents.”
Twenty-six states are suing the federal government over the Affordable Care Act, calling for its partial or complete repeal. Harkin says partisan politics are clearly in play, not the best interests of the population.
“People want to repeal the ‘Obamacare,’ but they don’t tell you what they want to replace it with, by the way,” Harkin says. “Secondly, this is a political thing. They want to make Obama a one-term president.”
Harkin says the federal health care law is already changing lives for the better, allowing for a host of preventive care like colonoscopies and mammograms without copays or deductibles, more savings for the elderly and letting younger people stay on their parents’ policies longer.
Harkin says, “As more and more people see the benefits of this law, those who want to campaign on repealing it are going to find themselves on the losing end of the electoral votes this fall.”
One study finds the health care act will reduce the federal deficit by more than 100-billion dollars over the next decade, while critics say its cost will exceed two-trillion dollars, well above the 900-billion predicted by the Obama Administration.
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