Fate of Health Law Now Clear, States Rush to Meet Deadlines

[SoCalDem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/health/states-face-tight-health-care-deadlines.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0


By ABBY GOODNOUGH and ROBERT PEAR
Published: November 8, 2012 54 Comments

After nearly three years of legal and political threats that kept President Obama’s health care law in a constant state of uncertainty, his re-election on Tuesday all but guarantees that the historic legislation will survive. Nurses and doctors turned out to support President Obama's health care law outside the Supreme Court last March. The court upheld the law in June.



Now comes another big hurdle: making it work.

States will need to hustle to put in place the various pieces meant to help their residents meet the contentious requirement of having health insurance by Jan. 1, 2014. The federal government is under immense pressure to provide more guidance, while building its own tools to ensure the law’s success. With Mitt Romney’s vow to “repeal and replace” the law no longer a threat, its supporters are exulting. Bill Foster, a Democrat elected to the House from a suburban Chicago district, summarized the message of the election this way: “For our district and for our country, the debate on Obamacare is over.’

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The health care overhaul still faces resistance from many Republican members of Congress, governors and state legislators. In the 11 weeks before Inauguration Day, Mr. Obama faces crucial choices about strategy that could determine the success of the law in the next few years: Will the administration, for example, try to address the concerns of insurers, employers and some consumer groups who worry that the law’s requirements could increase premiums? Or will it insist on the stringent standards favored by liberal policy advocates inside and outside the government? Much now depends on the states, where lawmakers will decide in the coming weeks and months whether to build online marketplaces known as insurance exchanges, where individuals and small businesses can shop for health plans, and whether to expand their Medicaid programs to reach many more low-income people.

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