Published on Cleveland.com, including Storify http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2012/06/what_cleveland-area_people_are.html
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The aspects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 193-page decision on the Affordable Care Act that are receiving the most attention are the individual insurance requirement and coverage for young adults through age 26.
As the country digested the court’s ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act, people continued to weigh in with a variety of reaction.
Joyce Garcia, an analyst at a medical insurance company, was among those who expressed relief that young adults will be able to stay on their parent’s health insurance through age 26.
My daughter is a chef. Only 1 out of 4 restaurants or food places offer health insurance. She doesn’t have it. It’s very difficult and very expensive, so if they can make it more affordable and make it so everybody has to have it maybe things won’t go up so high, that’s my opinion.
Alissa Ostrove, 22, has better insurance through her job as coordinator at a local nonprofit organization than what she would get with her parents’ insurance plan. But many of her friends aren’t as fortunate.
So many of my friends are unemployed. I know so many more people who graduated without a job than with jobs that would be providing them health benefits. I think it just depends how you view healthcare. I am under the ideology that it’s a basic human right and it is the role of government to supply that. I think it really comes down to if you view it as a right that governments should provide.
But others, such as Melissa Stover, an MBA student at Cleveland State University, questions the benefit of such coverage if it includes higher prices.
My parents have health insurance and I’m on their health insurance plan. They would have covered me because I’m working on my master’s [whether or not] the Affordable Care Act [existed]. So I’m not seeing any benefit from it. I find that it was a little ridiculous that the mandate raised prices. You’re not really helping people if you raise the prices on everything.
The mandate requiring health insurance has proven to be one of the most controversial aspects of the Affordable Care Act. Rae Schmidt, owner of Doula by Design in North Ridgeville, said she wishes she would prefer having the choice to decide whether or not to buy insurance.
I would prefer freedom of choice and my choice of medicine and my choice of medicine has been homeopathy and herbs … As a doula [someone who assists women during childbirth], I support anybody’s choice. I’m not judgmental. Personally, I choose to go holistic. I believe you are the food you eat. I have taken vitamins for over 30 years. I guess I hope that Obama is not re-elected and maybe the ruling on the mandate will change.
Charlie Parker, 44, a worker at a local nonprofit, takes issue with the Supreme Court’s ruling that the “individual mandate” is constitutional, but as a tax, not as part of the commerce clause.
Obama declared it wouldn’t be a tax, and now it’s declared as a tax. I have nothing against people now having the ability to be covered but it was forced — that’s what I have the issue with.
Dr. James Sechler, president of the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland and Northern Ohio, cautions that it’s still too early to know the full impact of Thursday’s decision.
We think that all Americans should have access to affordable healthcare, but what would really make healthcare more affordable would be to have meaningful healthcare liability reform, because about 30 percent of the cost of medicine is defensive medicine, and liability and insurance.
And Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio, looked at the human angle:
The impact this judgment will have on the future health and well-being of Ohio families cannot be overstated. For those looking at today’s Supreme Court decision as if it is a sporting event, it is not. Somewhere in Ohio this law will help a family survive financial devastation from health care bills. Somewhere in Ohio this law will help a child born with a pre-existing condition survive and thrive. Somewhere in Ohio this law will help a person facing life or death decisions over fair access to affordable health care services.