Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Health Care

August 2012

On June 28, the Supreme Court upheld the landmark health care reform legislation known as the Affordable Care Act, which will give 34 million uninsured Americans health care, as well as provide significantly strengthened consumer rights and protections for all insured.

“This is not just an abstract legal decision. Real lives and the heartbreak of real families will be saved because of it. We’ve got more people in California dying each year because they don’t have health insurance than any other state in the country. But thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the vast majority of us will be covered,” said Barbara Blake, RN, UNAC/UHCP Secretary/Treasurer.

“As nurses and health care professionals we would never turn away from a sick patient. This act makes that bedrock moral stance the law of the land by preventing insurers from turning away Americans with pre-existing conditions from their coverage,” said Ken Deitz, RN, President of UNAC/UHCP. “Nowhere does that mean more than here in California, where more residents are denied coverage for pre-existing conditions than in any other state.”

UNAC/UHCP has long advocated health care reform that reduces costs, expands access and ensures patient safety and quality care. The Affordable Care Act contains much-needed reforms that move us toward those goals, and we have supported it at every stage of its passage into law. Learn more: http://www.healthcare.gov/law/features/rights/index.html