On March 22, Ron Pollack, of Families USA, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi celebrated passage of the health law.聽(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
In the aftermath of Republicans鈥� election victories, defenders of the health care law are huddling 聳 once again 聳 in an effort to thwart GOP efforts to eviscerate the sweeping measure.
Groups that back the law aren鈥檛 likely to coalesce around a single message to increase public support. Some patient groups, for example, are likely to try to steer clear of partisan politics and focus instead on promoting the law and pressing for its full implementation. Other groups, however, are likely to champion the law to rally the Democratic base for the 2012 elections.
But one thing is clear: This time around, the stakes go beyond the fate of the law itself. Many Republicans are citing the law as the prime example of a government that鈥檚 聽and a reason to put the GOP in charge of the White House and Congress.
鈥淎 week ago Tuesday was like a cold shower for some of the organizations that felt that聽job had been done, that health reform was enacted into law and will be a reality,鈥� says Ron Pollack, executive director of , a consumer group. 鈥淚f anything, the election results are re-energizing the many groups that worked hard to get the legislation enacted.鈥�
Pollack hosted a session Tuesday with about 20 groups representing patients, labor, consumers and health care providers, among others. It was one of many meetings that backers of the law have held since the elections, and more such sessions are anticipated in the coming weeks.
Among the ideas of how to respond:
鈥� President Mary Kay Henry says supporters should promote items such as the law鈥檚 small business tax credits and keeping adult children up to age 26 on their parents鈥� health insurance and emphasize the law will 鈥渟top this trading of wages for health care that has been going on in the economy for decades.鈥澛�
鈥斅燚eAnn Friedholm says helping states鈥� implementation efforts 聳 in particular their oversight of health insurance rates 聳 is聽critical, as is helping consumers understand how the provisions work.
鈥斅燛xecutive Director Ethan Rome says advocates must make it clear what repealing the law or its major provisions would really mean. 鈥淭he law gets the insurance companies off the backs of the consumers,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he Republican repeal mongers want to give health care back to the insurance industry. That is what it boils down do.鈥�
Republican opponents of the health law say such approaches aren鈥檛 likely to succeed.
鈥淚 honestly don鈥檛 think this bill will survive until 2014,鈥� says Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director who is now president of the . 鈥淚t will fall under its own fiscal weight if nothing else. We can鈥檛 afford it.鈥�
Other Republicans say the problem isn鈥檛 the messages Democrats have used to try to explain the law, but public opposition to the law itself.
For example, some advocates say that the benefits of the law 聳 such as prohibitions on lifetime limits and cancellations of insurance once individuals get sick 聳 got drowned out in a loud and nasty political season.
Others reject that analysis.
鈥淚t鈥檚 baloney to say that they didn鈥檛 explain things well enough,鈥� says Joseph Antos of the . Antos says that one of the Democrats鈥� main problems was that while some benefits took effect Sept. 23, they won鈥檛 actually kick in until January, when most new insurance plan years start. So for most voters, he says, 鈥渁lmost nothing happened鈥� before the election.
Backers of the law say they look forward to tackling Republicans鈥� claims against the measure. Dropping the Medicaid expansion or reducing subsidies, for example, would leave millions of Americans without health care coverage, they say. Cutting off funding would hamper state implementation of the law, including review of health insurance premium increases.
Holtz-Eakin and other opponents of the law also welcome a closer look. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lot of what oversight is. It鈥檚 a chance to communicate about big flaws,鈥� he said.