needed to make affordable health care available to all people in this country and not just for those who have a job that offers insurance or not...Mainly it comes down to ability to pay... But reading this portion of an article that critics against expanding Medicare showcase the unreasonableness of those who are at the table deciding who gets coverage....Somehow they act like this is a new problem of covering more people...and somehow they can't get enough doctors... I wonder how blinded they are to the number of people trying to get through school and become the future health care workers... We could of funded education too... Hired more teachers..Instead austerity and layoffs have been the actions for the last several years...And don't get me going about the outrages school tuition....


“The expansion of Medicaid is a sea change, and it’s occurring at the most difficult fiscal time in the history of the program,” said the Medicaid director in Arkansas, R. Andrew Allison, who is the president of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. “States are preoccupied with the challenge of sustaining the Medicaid program we already have.”

Arkansas officials have discussed cutting Medicaid services in the coming year to help close a gap between Medicaid costs and expected state appropriations. The gap — up to $400 million — represents more than one-fourth of state spending on the program.

Medicaid is jointly financed by the federal government and the states, with Washington paying 50 percent of the costs in higher-income states and about 70 percent in lower-income states like Arkansas. States have historically had leeway to define eligibility and benefits within guidelines set by federal law.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/us/in-health-care-ruling-vast-implications-for-medicaid.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Affordable Care Act Upheld: Mandate Deemed Constitutional
- Common Dreams staff
The US Supreme Court today delivered its much anticipated ruling on the health care reform law, a decision with far-reaching legal and political implications in the months, and years, ahead.

In a 5-4 vote, with conservative Chief Justice Roberts voting with more liberal justices Kagan, Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor, the court has upheld the law in its entirety. Justices Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy dissented.

The opinions for the health care cases are available here (pdf).

UPDATE (2:35 pm): Filmmaker Michael Moore lauded the decision, but reminded Americans that much more work remains. "Let's not forget," he said, "we still don't have true universal health care – 26 million Americans will still NOT be covered under the Obama law. With this victory, we must now keep moving the ball down the field until we have Medicare for All."

UPDATE (11:46 am): Senator Bernie Sanders: Statement on Supreme Court Health Care Ruling
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/06/28