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Rural reactions to Obamacare ruling predictably partisan

Reactions from rural and agricultural leaders Thursday to the Supreme Court’s decision that federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act are legal were as partisan as those in the rest of the country.

“Living in a rural community shouldn’t have to come with a hefty price tag for health care,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an email.

“The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is making a difference today in the lives of millions of rural Americans. Prior to the ACA, many rural families had a hard time finding affordable insurance coverage, paying an average of nearly half of their costs out of their own pockets,” Vilsack said.

“Many didn’t have access to affordable health insurance through an employer because they were self-employed as farmers, ranchers or rural business owners and entrepreneurs,” he said.

“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act and President [Barack] Obama’s leadership, that is no longer the case. Today, on behalf of millions of rural Americans everywhere, I am pleased to say that the Affordable Care Act is here to stay.”

Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said “Today’s decision means millions of families will be able to keep their affordable health insurance for themselves and their children. Once again, the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act, and I urge Republicans to stop playing games and get to work making sure the law works for every American family.”

Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, the most Democratic-leaning farm organization, said his organization applauded the decision.

“Rural Americans are disproportionately uninsured compared to urban Americans, and today’s decision not to eliminate tax credits in 34 states is a major step in advancing the affordability of national health coverage for the nation’s rural population,” Johnson said.

Republican reaction was different.

“The Supreme Court’s decision today does not take away from the fact that Obamacare is fundamentally broken and that the administration has recklessly implemented this law, damaging our health care system as a whole and jeopardizing Kansans’ health care,” said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

“Every day Obamacare continues to hurt millions — just last week the administration released the proposed premium increases for 2016, rising to as high as 38 percent for some in Kansas,” Roberts said.

House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., said, “This decision today has been disappointing and surprising to so many of us on Capitol Hill.”

“The Supreme Court continues to see gray when it comes to the black letter of the law as written in Obamacare’s base text in the Affordable Care Act,” Aderholt said.

“If you look at the way the Democrats actually wrote the law, it seems to be very clear that subsidies were not available for those in the federal exchanges. This was not a typo. The language was written as it was written,” he said.

“I think that everyone agrees that our health care system needed changes and improvements. However, this was a typical bureaucratic, overreaching approach to a situation that did not need to be nearly as complicated.

“Five years after Obamacare became law, it is more clear that ever this was the wrong prescription for our health care system. Many have seen their premiums and deductibles shoot skyward, while their overall coverage has been weakened. Most Americans have found that the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable.”

Peter Ferrara, a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based free-market think tank that often comments on rural issues, said, “The Supreme Court today put its stamp of approval on President Obama rewriting the law as he chooses. The separation of powers has fallen, the rule of law has fallen, the Supreme Court has fallen. President Obama now has the power to rule by decree.”