The tide of negativity continues to rule the buzz surrounding the forthcoming SCOTUS ruling on the the ACA’s constitutionality. Perhaps the most affected and monitored constituency of the ruling — the voting public — can offer clues into the the reception that will follow the news. Based upon initial polling, whatever the outcome, it will not be a hit with the American people. Among registered GOP voters, the conventional wisdom portends that, as a bloc, they are more open than Democrats to a Supreme Court ruling striking down only part of President Obama’s healthcare law. Only a little more than a third of voters would embrace the law if completely upheld.
As the waiting game continues, public polling has continued to show that Americans generally are more knowledgeable about the legal questions surrounding its passage than they have been over the past couple of years since President Obama signed the ACA into law. Most of the conjecture has surrounded the mandate, of course, but an increasing number of Americans are concerned with the overall cost of implementation on closer scrutiny of the law’s tenets. Making more news is not only who will be footing the bill to cover the more than 30 million estimated newly minted beneficiaries of the ACA, but also who will not be covered — illegals and those who cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket expenses (you know, those who just make enough to NOT qualify for tax credits extended under the law). If anything, whatever the SCOTUS ruling, fresh debate will swirl for months — right up until the election, and beyond. All of this will probably make such scenarios such as these a rather quaint memory. | LINK
