#obamacare!

It's a strange thing to feel so emotional about a Supreme Court ruling. Five people in unflattering robes, though, made my day. Frankly, they made my year.

I'd been priming myself for the worst over the past few weeks-- Obamacare will, at best, have the mandate stricken but in all likelihood, you have to be prepared for the entire thing to be tossed out, I told myself.

I made lofty feel-good plans for when the unfortunate ruling would come down-- I'd eat a lot of ice cream, watch sappy movies and remind myself that the world would be OK. We survived 8 years of Rove-Cheney!

In some ways, Obamacare was a personal issue. I spent a year of my life working on it. And even though I'm not anymore, several of my good friends and my boyfriend still work on the law.

But it went deeper. Somewhere along the way I'd come to really believe in the law itself and what it stood for. More Americans should have health insurance. Our birth control should be fully covered by insurance. People who earn enough money but are too negligent to buy insurance should be incentivized to insure themselves so the rest of us aren't left footing their emergency room bills.

My past two years in Washington have made me assume that strong policy will not prevail. I've watched as the House of Representatives has tried to defund Planned Parenthood; as they've been solely focused on not raising taxes at the detriment of our schools, our infrastructure and the well-being of the neediest Americans.

And so I sort of assumed that Obamacare would get caught up in the destructive Beltway bulldozer. That even the Supreme Court, now outweighed with conservatives, would follow the Tea Party lead and undermine any legislation that dared to look out for the poor.

I was wrong. My cynicism was dead wrong. 

I don't care if Chief Justice John Roberts' ruling on Obamacare was purely to protect his legacy. I don't care if he was swayed by how pathetic the Supreme Court's respectability numbers are. At the end of the day, I'm thrilled that we still have a health law in place that really will benefit Americans who previously couldn't afford health insurance. And, selfishly, that in August my birth control will finally be covered by my insurance company.

The Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare! I really thought they would rule against it, but I woke up this morning pleasantly surprised :D

edit: lost two followers because of this post LOL

I know, I know. You think it’s an excuse for death panels. And for the government to tell its citizens to do things far more terrifying than wearing your seatbelt. But set aside your Glenn Beck talking points and hear me out.I’ve been known to turn bad manicures into mental health days.

First things first—disclosure hour. I moved to Washington to work on Obamacare. But before you throw your laptop across the room and declare everything a fraud, let me come even further clean. I didn’t particularly like working on Obamacare. It turns out I’m not made for giant bureaucracies and horribly lit cubicles. That being said, I learned a lot about the law. And since this blog post didn’t have to be vetted and edited by five million people until it says essentially nothing—unlike everything else I worked on while in the federal government – my thoughts on the matter are purely my own and are genuine. Chew on that, America!

My top five reasons for why you should get an I Heart Obamacare t-shirt: 

Relive your post-college, “oh damn what now” days. And the terror of knowing your college health insurance plan was about to run out. Except factor in a job market as frustrating as the status quo. A popular component of Obamacare is that kids (yes, I went all patronizing with the “kids” there) can stay on their parents’ insurance plans until they turn 26. If I’d had that option post-college, you can be damn sure I wouldn’t have signed up to be a document organizer at a law firm. OK I still would have, but only because the firm had free happy hours on Fridays.

Consider that health insurance companies actually have to explain what goes into our premiums. This is a nonpartisan win—we’ve all grown up with just accepting that our insurance companies will charge us more each year. But Obamacare forces insurance companies to explain their increases. This health law increases transparency and promotes competition? What’s with this capitalist concept!? Next thing you’re going to tell me, Obama’s not a Muslim!

Mull over the idea that before Obamacare, it was legal for insurance companies to charge women more money than men. Because, apparently, rocking the female parts meant having a “pre-existing condition.” As Princess of “My God Having Children Seems Terrifying,” I know that I, too, discriminate against people who’ve had kids. What about happy hour? And sleeping in? And being totally self-absorbed? But my discrimination is at least aimed at both parties involved; not this sexist concept that health insurance companies were allowed to get away with pre-Obamacare.

Consider the schwag you’ve already gotten or will land in 2014 because of Obamacare. As a lady, I’m especially excited about free pap smears. (Yes! Nothing says hot Tuesday afternoon like not paying for some probing!). And birth control. (Lest we forget yesterday’s flight and the 20 screaming children!). And mammograms. (Again with the probing!). These comp’d preventive services are a clever component of Obamacare. I wasn’t always “stellar” at cost benefit analyses but at the end of the day even my back-of-the-envelope calculations reveal it’s cheaper to pay for birth control and early onset cancer than it is unwanted children and late-stage cancer. (BAM! Inflate my econ 101 grade with that badass real-world problem set.)

Actually understanding your health insurance options. So I’m an obsessive Orbitz user. It’s how I assess hotels and which clunker car I’m going to rent. I can’t fathom how people traveled before Orbitz entered the sphere. In fact I’m pretty sure everyone just stayed in their homes, stockpiling for Y2K. In 2014 health insurance exchanges are going to go live. That doesn’t mean much when mumbled on NPR every month or so. But the concept—which actually was promoted by the uber-conservative Heritage Foundation in the early ‘00s* —is having Americans shop for their health insurance on a website like Orbitz. You’ll load the site—tailored to what your state’s health insurance market offers-- and you’ll have all your health insurance options laid out. How much coverage do you want? How much do you want to spend? Do you care more about your doctor visit co-pays or month-to-month premiums? Anyone who’s self-insured or works for a small business will be able to buy their health insurance this way. It’s frankly more shocking that this sort of thing didn’t exist before now. But whatever, 2014 isn’t too far off. I plan to be brunette by then.

And so ends my pitch-cum-soapbox blog post of 2012. I didn’t hit all my points—but five is probably a lucky number in some cultures. And health is like 90 percent luck so having a five-point justification plan made a lost of sense while lounging on my couch.