Skip to main content

HealthCare in USA: "Supreme" Moment!

Next week Supreme Court of America would give ruling on one of the most awaited ruling in over 50 years. Would it strike out health care law in its entirety or would it hold it? Would individual mandate go but everything would remain? One way or other, this ruling would impact each and every American one way or other. Health care law is considered as one of the main policy initiative and could have as big impact as previous two initiatives - Social Security (passed in 1930s) and Medicare (passed in 1960s). So next week would not be only very important for President Obama for his re-election but most importantly for his legacy, it is also important for each and every American. With so much burden and expectations, here is I think Supreme Court ruling would come out:

  • Would upheld most of the provisions in this law. Some of the important ones are like covering kids till age 26 on parents coverage and many others
  • However it would strike down "individual mandate" on basis of constitutionality. With that, there would be lot of debates and discussions but no future President would ever try to go this route again for another 20-30 years
With such mixed ruling, both parties would declare victory but President Obama would not be very happy since this was supposed to be his legacy. Having said that, there are enough other policy aspects on which President Obama can run his campaign and still win the election (provided economy does not enter into recession thanks to European mess)


I would be heading out to India for my summer vacation.
Wish all of you exciting summer!

/Shyam

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2025 = Is it going to be 1997 or 2000?

Happy Holidays... After 5 months of hibernation with no real reason than writing block, I decided to use quiet morning of Christmas day to start writing again. Lot has happened in last 5 months - in particular release of Animal Spirits with Fed starting interest rate reduction cycle and historic victory of President Trump for 2nd term. As the year turns into 2025 and stock markets at all time high, one would wonder, what's next?  To answer this, one needs to look back at 1920s and 1990s to give us some context on where markets may be headed. 1920s saw invention of televisions, radio, wider adoption of cars, vacuums, penicillin and many other which we consider household items now. These inventions created roaring 20s with markets going up by 500% eventually leading to crash of 1929. However during mid-20s, markets keep going up due to excitement of these inventions and end of World War-1 and Spanish Flu Pandemic. 1990s also saw many inventions - the key being launch of Netscape in 1...

And the Oscar goes to...

It's Oscar Sunday and time for predictions for few categories - before I digress into talking about drama in DC or markets.  First of all, I want to recognize the damage LA fires have done to the beloved areas of Los Angeles and impacted families across all spectrums. My heart goes out to them and wish them recovery and rebuilding of their lives... This year's Oscar nominees and post nomination period had been interesting to say the least. Due to this, the field is wide open in almost all categories and that's what makes prediction game so interesting. Just to set expectations, I would consider a win if I get even 50% predictions correct given the dynamics of nominees this year. So here are my predictions - "And the Oscar goes to..." Best Picture - Anora (surprise could be "The Brutalist") Best Director - Sean Baker for "Anora" (Surprise could be Brady Corbet for "The Brutalist") Best Actor - Adrien Brody for "The Brutalist"...

The Politics and Gamesmanship of TikTok!

TikTok is less than 3 hours from going dark on USA's east coast if TikTok owner Bytedance (and Chinese Government) follows thru its "bluff" to honor the law " Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" which goes into effect on Jan 19, 2025. And suddenly there is lots of politics and gamesmanship around TikTok.. Let's look at the players and their positions US Congress: The " TikTok Ban" law was passed by congress with bipartisan support and coincidently it goes into effect one day before new administration takes charge. Everyone knew the exact date and time of oath taking ceremony of new President...but maybe the congress did not think that there would be change of President and did not bother to put effective date post new government taking charge...that created a window of 36 hours of "law being in effect" unless... President Biden: Biden himself did not think that he won't be President for 2nd term. S...