| Updated: 6/29/2012 9:13 am |
Published: 6/28/2012 9:12 pm
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On Thursday, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the majority of the Affordable Care Act, the overhaul of the American health care system spearheaded by President Obama.
In Tulsa, there was no shortage of opinions on the decision.
For Jeremy Everett, who is uninsured, the ruling made him believe he would pay a hefty tax if he did not get health insurance by the time the law goes into effect in 2014.
Jeremy doesn't like that.
“With them wanting to penalize people because we don't have insurance, I mean there's a lot of people who don't, it just doesn't seem right that we should be penalized because we can't afford the health care,” Everett said,
Not everyone without insurance will be penalized. FOX23 took Everett's stats and calculated what the new health care rules will mean he be eligible for an expansion of Medicaid when the ACA becomes law, but only if Oklahoma agrees to comply with the new law. There is no guarantee that will happen.
“They should probably comply because I don't want to be hurt by the state because they don't want to do what they're told to do,” Everett said.
Jeremy also says he doesn't think this is last battle in the war over the health care overhaul.
“With the election coming up, they're going to try to flip it back and forth.”
One person surprised by the ruling was local Doctor Ken Muckala.
“I thought that it would probably be struck down, I was very surprised,” he said.
Dr. Muckala says he is happy health care is being expanded to more Americans, but he doubts we can shoulder this financial burden.
“Many of these people have high acuity illnesses. They're very sick and so, it's going to cost all of us to take care of these people.”
He thinks most of his colleagues in the medical field will agree.
“I am like everyone else in the community, we hate to see change, I am somewhat skeptical about what the politicians have to say,” Dr. Muckala told FOX23.
Dr. Muckala says he will continue to offer his patients the same level of care, and he won’t worry too much about the new law because there's still a lot of time left before most provisions go into effect in 2014.
