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u.s. news Dialuna 7 Juni 2021

Biden turns to Obama to help boost health care enrollment

(AP) — President Joe await a Supreme Court ruling an option created by the law
Biden turned to his old on the law’s constitutionality. and offered in a limited num-
boss, former President The Zoom call was recorded ber of states.
Barack Obama, on Satur- on Friday afternoon and re-
day to help him encour- leased Saturday as Biden’s That accounts for enrollment
age Americans to sign up weekly address. of about 27 million people.
for “Obamacare” health But the Biden administra-
care coverage during an The Health and Human tion is also claiming credit
expanded special enroll- Services Department said in for four million people who
ment period in the pan- a report that nearly 31 mil- would have been eligible for
demic. lion have obtained coverage Medicaid without Obama’s
in 2021 as a result of the law. law.
Biden used his weekly ad- That’s considerably higher lenge to the health law from without Biden’s special en-
dress for a brief Zoom chat than the more than 20 mil- Larry Levitt, executive vice Texas and other GOP-led rollment period.
with Obama to draw atten- lion estimate that’s common- president for health policy at states. They argue that be-
tion to the six-month ex- ly cited. the Kaiser Family Founda- cause Congress has eliminat- A life change such as losing
panded enrollment period tion, said the law broke down ed the law’s penalty for being workplace coverage or get-
that closes Aug. 15. Mean- The Biden administration barriers to enrollment among uninsured, a now-toothless ting married is considered a
while the government re- has launched a special sign- those who were already eli- ACA requirement that al- “qualifying life event” that
leased a report that claims up period during the pan- gible by simplifying applica- most all Americans must allows people to sign up any
that nearly 31 million Ameri- demic, and Congress passed tions and increasing aware- have health insurance is un- time during the year. Last
cans — a record — now have a big boost in subsidies for ness. He also pointed to the constitutional and therefore year about 390,000 people
health coverage through the private health plans sold un- establishment of communi- the law should fail. signed up because of life
Affordable Care Act. der the law. But that alone ty-based navigators tasked changes from Feb. 15 to April
doesn’t explain the increased with helping newly eligible Those defending the law 30, the government said.
“We did this together,” said coverage. people find coverage and say that even if the Supreme
Obama, whose administra- conducting outreach to those Court strikes down the cov- Biden, in the conversation
tion established the health The report says 11.3 million who were already eligible but erage requirement there’s no with Obama, spoke about the
insurance marketplace. “We people are covered through didn’t necessarily know it. reason to tamper with the 2015 death of his son Beau
always talked about how, if the health law’s marketplac- rest of the law. Biden from cancer.
we could get the principle es, where subsidized private “It didn’t require a sweeping
of universal coverage estab- plans are offered. An addi- law like the ACA to get peo- The White House says 1.2 “I literally remember sitting
lished, we could then build tional 14.8 million are cov- ple who were already eligible million people have now on the bed with him within a
on it.” ered through expanded Med- for Medicaid enrolled, but signed up for health insur- week or so him passing away,”
icaid, the report adds. All but the provisions of the ACA ance through the govern- Biden said, “and thinking,
The White House effort to a dozen states have accepted did help to get these millions ment marketplace during the what in God’s name would I
spotlight the expanded en- the law’s Medicaid expan- of people covered,” Levitt special enrollment period do if I got a notice from the
rollment and claim strong sion, which mainly serves said that began in February. That insurance company saying
numbers for the health law low-income working adults. number includes people who you’ve outlived your cover-
comes as the political world And 1 million are covered by The Supreme Court is soon would have qualified for a age?”
and the health care system so-called basic health plans, expected to rule on a chal- sign-up opportunity even

High court asked to review men-only draft registration law

(AP) — The Supreme tor of the American Civil again, retaining the men-on- decision was something of
Court is being asked to de- Liberties Union’s Women’s ly requirement sends a “re- an outlier because the court Just last year, a congressional
cide whether it’s sex dis- Rights Project, who is urging ally damaging message,” said was regularly invalidating commission concluded that
crimination for the gov- the court to take up the issue, Tabacco Mar, who represents gender-based distinctions the “time is right” to extend
ernment to require only says requiring men to register the National Coalition For in cases about other areas of the obligation to register to
men to register for the imposes a “serious burden on Men and two individual men the law. Many of those cases women. “The current dis-
draft when they turn 18. men that’s not being imposed challenging the law were brought by the found- parate treatment of women
on women.” ing director of the ACLU’s unacceptably excludes wom-
The question of whether it’s A group of retired senior mil- Women’s Rights Project, en from a fundamental civic
unconstitutional to require Men who do not register can itary officers and the Nation- Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who obligation and reinforces
men but not women to reg- lose eligibility for student al Organization for Women became a justice in 1993. gender stereotypes about the
ister could be viewed as one loans and civil service jobs, Foundation are among the role of women, undermining
with little practical impact. and failing to register is also a others urging the court to The last time the high court national security,” the com-
The last time there was a draft felony punishable by a fine of take the case. considered the Military Se- mission said in a report.
was during the Vietnam War, up to $250,000 and five years lective Service Act, then-
and the military has been all- in prison. But Tabacco Mar If the court agrees to hear the Justice William Rehnquist The Biden administration is
volunteer since. But the reg- says the male-only require- case, it wouldn’t be deciding explained that the purpose of urging the justices not to take
istration requirement is one ment does more than that. whether women have to reg- registration “was to prepare the case and to let Congress
of the few remaining places ister, just whether the current for a draft of combat troops.” instead tackle the issue. Ad-
where federal law treats men “It’s also sending a tremen- system is constitutional. If it He said that because women ministration lawyers wrote in
and women differently, and dously harmful message that isn’t, then it would then be could not serve in combat, a brief that any “reconsidera-
women’s groups are among women are less fit than men up to Congress to decide how the law was not unlawful sex tion of the constitutionality
those arguing that allowing it to serve their country in to respond, either by passing discrimination that violated of the male-only registration
to stand is harmful. this particular way and con- a law requiring everyone to the Constitution. requirement ... would be pre-
versely that men are less fit register or deciding registra- mature at this time” because
The justices could say as soon than women to stay home tion is no longer necessary. But military policy has Congress is “actively consid-
as Monday whether they will as caregivers in the event of changed. In 2013, the De- ering” the issue.
hear a case involving the Mil- an armed conflict. We think The issue of who has to reg- partment of Defense lifted
itary Selective Service Act, those stereotypes demean ister for the draft has been the ban on women serving in The case about the draft is
which requires men to regis- both men and women,” she to the court before. In 1981, combat. Two years later, the National Coalition For Men
ter for the draft. said. the court voted 6-3 to uphold department said all military v. Selective Service System,
the men-only registration re- roles would be open to wom- 20-928.
Ria Tabacco Mar, the direc- Even if the draft is never used quirement. At the time, the en without exception.