Serena Woods, director of strategic engagement for the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, and a Thanks Obamacare! spokeswoman, hasn't written off the possibility of the law surviving the Supremes.
"Realistically, I don't think anyone really knows what the Supreme Court is going to decide," she says. "But what we do know is that in the two years Obamacare has been law, it has helped thousands of Coloradans and millions of Americans get access to health care. So this video is a continuation of our education about what it has done and is doing."
The video, on view below, references the Supreme Court in text that accompanies images of people holding up signs featuring variations on the "Don't deny me" message against a musical backdrop. Yet it focuses on the law's protections for health-insurance seekers with preexisting conditions, a provision that allows adults age 26 and younger to stay covered by their parents' policy, and rules that provide prescription-drug-cost savings for senior citizens.These are arguably the law's three most popular features -- ones that many of its opponents would like to keep, but which the Obama administration claims would be unsupportable if the individual mandate (the requirement that the vast majority of Americans purchase health insurance) is struck down by the court.
We don't know at this writing when the Supreme Court will hand down its decision, but its expected this month. But even if the majority of jurists turn their thumbs down, "I don't think the message necessarily changes," Woods says. "The law was written to solve a problem, and if it is overturned, that problem doesn't change, and we're still going to be striving to improve access to affordable quality care. So we're really positive and hopeful that the Supreme Court will uphold the law and it will help people get the care they need when they need it."
Woods defers questions about the political ramifications of rejection, stressing that Thanks Obamacare! is "a nonpartisan organization." However, she argues that "millions have felt the positive aspects of the law, and we're hopeful that will continue after the next few weeks."
Here's the video.
Follow and like the Michael Roberts/Westword Facebook page.
More from our Politics archive: "Thanks Obamacare! website aims to turn partisan slur into positive term (VIDEO)."
