Local physician excited over Supreme Court ruling; some taxpayers disagree
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) left some health care professionals excited and some taxpayers annoyed.
At the Raphael Health Center on the near north side, its mission is to help low income families not only get treatment but sign up for insurance. The Affordable Care Act is big part of that. But they worry the word “affordable” would have basically disappeared if not for today’s ruling.
Last year, Dr. Louis Winternheimer said about a quarter of the patients at the Raphael Health Center were uninsured.
“Many of them haven’t had health coverage for a long time or they’ve been maybe having to use public hospitals and maybe the emergency room more than they really wanted to,” he said. But he added that the ACA changed that.
“Over the last six months, we’ve seen the number of uninsured in our practice drop by about half,” he said. “So we don’t want to see that go the other way.”
That could have happened if not for today’s Supreme Court ruling. The ruling means the nearly 200,000 Hoosiers who signed up with ACA will keep getting the federal subsidies that help them pay for health insurance, an average of nearly $300 per month.
It’s money Jim Grutza feels belongs to him.
“My rates have gone up about 35 percent and my deductibles have gone up probably about 150 percent,” Grutza said. “I know a lot of people (where) the same thing has happened to them.”
But without the subsidies, Dr. Winternheimer worries less patients would be in his waiting room.
“I think they have to make difficult decisions sometimes about where they’re spending their money and whether or not they can afford to go,” he said.
And avoiding treatment is what he ordered.
“Forgetting all the politics of it you know, the fact that more people have access to care is all positive from our standpoint,” said Dr. Winternheimer.
Taxpayers weren’t the only people upset with today’s ruling. Several Indiana lawmakers quickly gave their two cents.
“Obamacare is deeply flawed,” Governor Mike Pence said.
He said it caused premiums for people in Indiana to jump more than 50 percent and wants it to be repealed.
“We should replace it with the kind of health care reform that empowers individuals rather than mandating that people purchase health insurance or face penalties and taxes,” said Pence.
Gov. Pence fought Obamacare in Congress and he refused to set up an Indiana insurance exchange as governor. That means that this is one of 34 states where the subsidies would end if the ruling had gone the other way.