Republicans Think Healthcare Is A Privilege and Not A Right

  "We think the mandate 

and the law is 

constitutional. And we 

think the court will rule 

that way," 

Vice President Joe Biden expressed confidence the Supreme Court would uphold President Obama's signature health care law.

One of the most striking take-aways from this week's U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the healthcare reform law was the steadfast insistence on the part of Republicans to deny affordable and accessible medical treatment to as many people as possible.

The party is determined to maintain the status quo of healthcare being a privilege and not a right — putting us at odds with just about every other developed nation on the planet and, not coincidentally, resulting in about 50 million people being uninsured.


Santorum's 3-year-old daughter has a severe genetic disorder called Trisomy 18. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, half of all infants with the ailment do not survive beyond the first week of life. "Some children have survived to the teenage years, but with serious medical and developmental problems," it says.

Luckily for this little girl, her father has reported earning more than $3.6 million since he left Congress in 2007, so she'll probably never want for insurance coverage.

But do Santorum and his Republican allies truly think that others who lack such good fortune deserve less, or perhaps no, medical care? Do they believe that other children with preexisting conditions have less of a right to treatment?

Or is there perhaps room to acknowledge that simple standards of human decency make clear that society has certain obligations, and in the United States, as of this moment, those obligations are not being met?


"Determining how justices (or judges) will vote based on their questions at oral argument is a fool’s errand. Pundits’ speculation is (1) just that, speculation, (2) entertainment for the masses, (3) spin from those who have long since chosen sides, or (4) all of the above.  Read more

Let's Give President Obama The House & Senate

"If they're going to decide on women's reproductive issues, I'm not going to vote for any of them. Women's reproduction is our own business." -- Iowa voter, evangelical Christian, and former Mitt Romney supporter Mary Russell, quoted in the New York Times, March 10, 2012

Women like Mary Russell are going to make the difference in 2012. They're not just going to reelect President Obama; they're going to help us take back the House and keep our firewall in the Senate. 

The Republicans' attacks on women's health care are costing them votes.  Republicans aren't getting the message. They're pushing even more outrageous bills, like the one in Arizona that would require women to tell their boss that they need to be on the pill to treat a medical condition if they want it to be covered by their insurance. If they continue down this road, they're going to lose a lot of women supporters for a very long time.

A few days ago eight of Georgia's nine women senators summed up how most Americans feel about the GOP's "War on Women" by throwing up their hands in disgust and walking off the floor of the Senate chambers to protest GOP attempts to block insurance coverage for abortions and contraceptives.  No longer content with using legislation to shut down safe and accessible contraception, the GOP is now in the business of dictating private insurance policies — the next chess move in their efforts to turn this country into a theocracy.  Their strategy is to pander to a tiny group of religious extremist intent on imposing their will on the vast majority of Americans.  Will you sit back and submit to the tyranny of this minority?

But we can't be complacent! Republicans aren't going to do our job for us. They are giving us the ammunition we need to win, but all their attacks on women won't make a difference if women don't show up at the polls in November.

So let's fight, and let's win. Let's educate and mobilize women and make sure they vote for Democrats. Let's give our champions in the Senate the reinforcements they need -- and take back the House to give women the voice they deserve in Congress.

The Affordable Care Act is Working

In the past year, thanks to the health care law:

• Over 20 million women with private insurance have received at least one preventive health care service without a co-pay or deductible.
• Over 39 million women no longer face lifetime limits on coverage, so they can get the health care they need.
• About 2.5 million young adults gained health coverage because they could stay on their parents' plans.

And this is just the beginning. The health care law is working for women by helping them get the care they need. So why are some opponents of the law fighting to take away these benefits and common-sense protections? 


Now, millions of women can get preventive services like mammograms and colonoscopies without a co-pay or deductible and insurance companies can't drop people's coverage because they are sick. Later this year, millions of women will have access to new preventive health services, including well-women exams and birth control without a co-pay or deductible. 

This week, Americans across the country are celebrating the second anniversary of the health care law, known as the Affordable Care Act, and all the ways it’s helping their lives. Join the celebration to protect women’s health and the law — video