The Battle Has Just Begun

Despite the seeming victory in March over health care reform, the battle is far from over. There are many states and members of Congress still fighting hard to disable the act signed into law by President Obama on March 23rd of this year. Supporters of the law need to be working just as hard to keep it alive as they did before it was passed.

The first thing threatening health care reform right now is many states and their Attorneys General in particular (including Virginia’s own Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II) who have filed lawsuits to challenge the new law. Virginia is one of more than twenty states whose attorneys general have filed lawsuits trying to prevent parts of the health care law from being implemented.

Virginia’s lawsuit was the first to pass any legal test yesterday, when it succeeded in not being thrown out before it even reached a hearing. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson declared that the law “radically changes the landscape of health insurance coverage in America” and that the case will be heard starting on October 18th.

The health care law is being attacked from another side as well. Many Republicans in Congress, as well as those who are hoping to win seats this November are trying a different tactic. They have pledged to try and win back the House in an effort to de-fund the new law, or at least the sections they find most troubling.

However many parts of the law are already receiving funding and it might be harder to prevent those parts from continuing. That hasn’t stopped nearly 120 candidates for Congress from promising to try and stop funding for as much of the health care reform as they can (they have signed a pledge at DefundIt.org).

Supporters of health care reform must do their best to make sure these measures are not successful. Particularly do as much as they can to support and encourage others' support of candidates who will fully fund health care reform and help the 30 million without care that will be covered by this law.