Health care law is doing job it was designed to do
Notice: Undefined variable: article_ad_placement3 in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/single.php on line 128
The Affordable Care Act – Obamacare in its more widely used shorthand – remains fairly unpopular, with over 50 percent of respondents in some polls saying they’re not happy with the law.
It might be time for these folks to engage in a rethink.
The law isn’t perfect, but according to data released by the Department of Health and Human Services Monday, it appears to be doing the job it was designed to do.
To mark the fifth anniversary of the law, the HHS reported that 16.5 million more people have health insurance now than they did when Obamacare was signed into law, and in the past two years, the number of Americans without health insurance has fallen from 20 percent to 13 percent.
Richard Frank, an assistant secretary for the Health and Human Services department, told USA Today that the country had not seen such a precipitous reduction in the rates of the uninsured since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid 50 years ago.
“That’s good for the people and their health, and it’s good for the economy,” Frank said.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the largest decreases in the number of people who are uninsured came in states that have accepted the expansion of Medicaid, while the smallest decreases have happened in states that have taken a pass on it.
Another piece of good news related to Obamacare: The Congressional Budget Office estimated last week that the coverage provisions of the law would cost $300 billion less over the next nine years than had been expected previously, thanks to a slowdown in the growth of health care costs.
First instituted during World War II as a way to get around wage and price controls, tying health insurance to employment has always been a flawed means of delivering health care. It now places burdens on employers and places Americans and their families in precarious spots should jobs be lost or benefits cut.
The Affordable Care Act can’t fix all the problems in how we are insured, but it is making a far-less-than-optimum situation much better. Those who want to see the law repealed have an obligation to come up with a superior alternative.