Obamacare: Health insurance for all Americans

“How come every time we stand up for white people, they think we’re racist?” (Photo: Dan Drew)

In a dispositive 6-3 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court recently rescued 6.4 million Americans in 34 states from the loss of their health insurance. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), derisively referred to as Obamacare by its opponents, included language that would deny benefits to those otherwise eligible but who had purchased their insurance from the federal marketplace instead of state-owned exchanges.

Opponents of the ACA took advantage of this legislative glitch in an attempt to damage the successful implementation of the act by substantially reducing the number of beneficiaries. However, the majority of the court concluded that the strict interpretation of the language would produce a result at odds with the intention of the legislative history established during the ACA’s passage.

Although some conservative purists will argue that their opposition to the ACA is philosophical, the evidence is building that racism might be at its root. There is considerable opposition to any program that is believed to be beneficial to blacks. Social Security survived political opposition to its enactment because of two factors that excluded blacks. It did not cover agriculture or domestic service, two major employment groups for blacks, and back in the 1930s the abbreviated longevity of blacks greatly limited the number who would reach retirement age.

It is no accident that only one state of the Confederacy, Arkansas, has chosen to accept the entirely federally-funded opportunity for expanded Medicaid. Whites object to the possibility of benefiting blacks, even if poor whites also are helped. The massacre in Charleston, S.C. should indicate that race relations in America are on a perilous course.

Whites always have focused on the perceived deficiencies in blacks. It is now time for serious self-inquiry by whites.