What Americans Stand to Lose

SUMMARY: As we wait for the Supreme Court's decision on the health care law in June, here's how to talk about what's at stake for ordinary Americans.

CORE MESSAGE

If Obamacare gets taken away, American families will pay the price.

Connect: Health care should be about ensuring all parents can take their kids to the doctor when they get sick, not scoring political points.

Define: Republicans want the courts to strike down Obamacare because it would cost the President politically, but it would cost the rest of us much more.

Illustrate: Without Obamacare, we'd have more bankruptcy for families struggling with serious illnesses, higher costs for small businesses, and children with pre-existing conditions denied coverage.

Affirm: There's nothing unconstitutional about Obamacare. It simply has a free-rider fee for people who don't buy their own health insurance and instead pass the cost to the rest of us.

Expose: The idea of making everyone take responsibility for their own care started as a Republican idea. Their views have changed. Fortunately, the Constitution has not.

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QUOTE TO REMEMBER

The Solicitor General under President Reagan, explaining why conservatives are now opposing the free-rider fee even though it's the "free-market alternative":

"It's politics."

ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

ATTACK: "The health reform law's individual mandate is unconstitutional."
RESPONSE:

The free-rider fee started as a Republican idea. But now that President Obama supports the individual responsibility provision, they're against it.
Republican views on personal responsibility may have changed, but the Constitution has not.
There's nothing unconstitutional about Obamacare. It simply has a free-rider fee for people who don't buy their own health insurance and instead pass the cost onto the rest of us.

MYTH: "Obamacare is a dangerous slippery slope to a broccoli mandate'"
RESPONSE:

That sounds absurd because it is. It's like saying we shouldn't have a minimum wage because someone might try to raise it to $5,000 per hour.
Obamacare makes sure everyone takes responsibility for their own care -- because when people without health insurance get hurt, the costs get passed down to the rest of us. It's just a free-rider fee that doesn't apply to you if you already have health insurance.
Even the Solicitor General for President Reagan says the free-rider fee is the "free-market alternative" -- and says, "it's politics" for conservatives to now oppose their own idea.

ATTACK: "The polling shows Americans want the health care law struck down."
RESPONSE:

The President's political opponents have been distorting, smearing, and misrepresenting the health care law since the beginning. Yet the majority of Americans still say we should give Obamacare a chance or leave it alone.
Most Americans actually support the individual mandate after they learn most people wouldn't even be affected by it.
It's time to move forward -- we can't afford to put insurance companies back in charge and turn the clock back on the progress we've made.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Affordable Care Act is already working for millions of Americans, including 105 million Americans with life-threatening illnesses who no longer have to live in fear of hitting lifetime dollar limits on their coverage and 130 million Americans who won't be shut out from coverage just because they have a pre-existing condition.
Americans strongly support many individual parts of the health law -- over 60% of Americans support the individual mandate, which is really just a fee on free riders, after they learn most people would still get their health coverage through their employers and wouldn't even be affected by it.
Republicans who were for the individual responsibility provision before they were against it -- just because President Obama was for it -- include: the leading Republican presidential candidates; George W. Bush; and Senators Jim DeMint, John McCain, and Scott Brown.
From over a hundred law professors and some of the most conservative judges in the country to 35 economists and 3 Nobel Prize winners and even the Solicitor General for President Reagan, legal experts and constitutional scholars say there's no doubt the new health law is constitutional.
In 2008, Americans without health insurance consumed almost $120 billion of health care services but weren't able to pay for over 60% of those costs -- meaning the rest of the costs were passed onto others.

We develop messaging by aggregating, analyzing and distilling polling, tested messaging, and expert recommendations, and monitoring the media to identify what is and isn't working. See here for some of the experts and organizations we draw on.