Focus on the ACA, Not Obama
The ACA Is Ours, Not Obama’s.
We need a bipartisan repair of the Affordable Care Act that focuses on people, not parties. All sides worked on the ACA with Obama. Medicare and Medicaid are not JohnsonCare; Social Security is not RooseveltCare. The ACA cannot be ObamaCare. It belongs to all of us.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Social Security Act of 1935
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935, as part of the New Deal.
After the Great Depression of 1929, many people lost their savings and homes. Poverty, unemployment, old age, and other hazards hurt so many people that society acted to protect its members.
Both Democrats and Republicans revised the original legislation over the years, and it survived Supreme Court challenges. It was repaired, not replaced. Millions of Americans currently depend on Social Security for all or part of their income.
Lyndon B. Johnson and Medicare and Medicaid Acts of 1965
Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law on July 30, 1965, after many years of bipartisan effort to put a national health plan in place. We do not call it LBJ-Care.
There have been many revisions to Medicare and Medicaid. The legislation was far from perfect, but we did not replace it; we repaired it for the Millions of Americans who need medical care.
Barak Obama and the Affordable Care Act of 2010
Barak Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, 2010.
The ACA took decades of bipartisan effort. Years of negotiations went into developing Mitt Romney’s Republican plan from Massachusetts. The mandate idea originates from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative foundation.
Working to Fix the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) offers many benefits including those below.
- The ACA stops insurance companies from dropping people when they get sick.
- The ACA stops discrimination based on preexisting conditions.
- The ACA ends annual and lifetime limits.
- The ACA ensures essential benefits.
- The ACA expands coverage.
Like all the other major bills safeguarding the American people, the ACA isn’t perfect. It has parts that we need to put right.
For ideas about which sections of the current law need work, see What is Wrong With ObamaCare and How do we Fix it?[1]
We need to repair, not replace the ACA.
We need accurate terms, especially in today’s polarized atmosphere. We need to focus on people, not politics by improving the Affordable Care Act.
