President-elect Joe Biden has plans to make the Affordable Care Act stronger and better for more people. Since the U.S. Supreme Court seems unlikely at this point to do Donald Trump's bidding and toss the law, there remains one obstacle: A Republican Senate. That is, unless Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock win the runoff election on Jan. 5, and Sen. Mitch McConnell loses his majority.
Bidencare, as he’s calling it, would make some of the fixes that Republican congresses have refused to allow in the past decade to extend access to coverage to every person residing legally in the U.S.—about 24 million people who are currently uninsured, the Urban Institute estimates. The big way he would achieve that is finally adding the public option to the marketplace for the 12 million people who buy insurance on the individual market. It's a Medicare-like program that would also extend coverage to people who would qualify for Medicaid under Obamacare, but don't because their states have refused to implement expansion. That would be about 4 million people gaining access to coverage. Access to care for undocumented people is still an issue, but we've got a much greater chance of achieving that if we have a Democratic Senate.
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A Democratic Senate might also finally give us a respite from the attacks on our health care. Never forget McConnell's promise last time he ran for reelection: to repeal Obamacare "root and branch." He tried that in 2017 and he failed, but since then it's been all about loading the judiciary with judges who will keep allowing cases from Republican states, no matter how bad they are.
He's not going to let Bidencare pass. He's going to continue to put judges on the bench who would take up specious Republican state challenges against whatever measures Biden puts in place to expand health care. Because it is what he does. Allowing anything that actually helps people and makes Democrats more popular is not going to happen on his watch. As always, the nation's health and prosperity depends on dethroning McConnell.