After years of enrollments, how is the Affordable Care Act working?
It depends on whom you ask.
Most objective health-care analysts rate it as working “pretty good,” a grade of C-plus up to a B. Although favorable ratings have improved in national polls, opinions are about evenly split, half giving approval, the other half not.
Some people, those most unfamiliar with the law, don’t like it but when questioned about various provisions of the ACA they give those good things a thumbs-up.
Some have pointed out flaws in the law – especially its relative inability to influence premium-rate increases that are, in some cases, too high. That is something increased free-market competition is supposed to do, which, by the way, didn’t happen before ObamaCare when premiums kept soaring.
Still others hate the law so much, as they have since Day One, they’ll blow any flaw way out of proportion, distort, exaggerate or even concoct outright lies to condemn the law. They are determined to throw out baby with bath water.
Their barrage of loud distortions is a major reason so many people are leery of the law or do not understand it. The shrill scare-mongering has caused so much noise, it makes accurate information hard to hear in the hysterical sound and fury.
One thing is certain: The ACA did not cause the end of the world. Last I checked, the world is very much with us. The ACA is not in a death spiral, despite the Republicans’ pathetic attempts to end it, voting for repeal, at last count, 67 times. ObamaCare isn’t a train wreck. It didn’t spawn death panels. It’s not a job-killer. It hasn’t escalated medical costs astronomically. It isn’t the worst thing to happen since slavery, as presidential candidate Ben Carson claimed.
In Massachusetts, 98 percent of people now have health care, thanks to RomneyCare, upon which ObamaCare was based, with the concept of mandates first originating in 1989 with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
About 16.4 million Americans now have insurance coverage who never had it before, thanks to ObamaCare and expanded Medicaid coverage in those states that have accepted the federal expansion.
It you asked those 16.4 million people, chances are better than excellent they will say they are very happy about the ACA.
Other people happy with the law are those who cannot be denied coverage because of a previous illness, women whose coverage costs cannot exceed those of men, children ages 26 and younger who can stay until that age on their parents’ health coverage, insurance policies that are guaranteed to cover important procedures, people who had tumors or other problems that were discovered early enough to treat, people relieved they no longer have to worry about filing bankruptcy because of titanic medical bills (medical bills being the main cause of bankruptcies in America) and most likely insurance companies happy to now have more people on their rolls.
People who do not like the law are those who blame it for premium increases, such as people whose incomes exceed the limits for being eligible for federal tax credits and other forms of financial help. And yes, even if those increases aren’t directly caused by the ACA, it’s a flaw in the law and should be fixed somehow, otherwise the Affordable Care Act cannot be considered “affordable” for a good number of Americans. On the other hand, premium increases have skyrocketed for a very long time, annually, long before the ACA became law. That national average this year for premium increases is about 7.5 percent, far less than the double-digit increases during the past couple of decades.
ObamaCare is not perfect; nobody ever said it was. It will require major and minor tune-ups in the coming years, but one thing is certain: It’s better than nothing. Just ask the 16.4 million Americans who are now happy to have health-care coverage and the many millions more who will be insured through the program.
This year’s sign-up period, by the way, started Nov. 18 and will end Feb. 15, 2016. If you don’t have medical insurance, now’s your chance to explore your options and then sign up. Go to www.mnsure.org.
