The Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare) is working and should be improved
Trump administration rolls back Obama-era transgender health care protections
“The move — coming during Pride Month, an annual celebration of the LGBTQ community that takes place throughout the month of June, and on the four-year anniversary of the deadly Pulse nightclub shooting, in which 49 people were killed at a popular LGBTQ venue in Orlando — was swiftly denounced by LGBTQ groups, which see the action as discriminatory.” Read more at CNN
“Obamacare is working”
Yahoo Finance
By: Rick Newman, November 21, 2019
The Affordable Care Act is Working and Republicans are still trying to kill it.
- About 20 million Americans have gained health care coverage
- The uninsured rate has dropped from 19.3% before ACA to 12.4% now
- In 2015 some Republicans claimed that the ACA was collapsing in a “death spiral” with rising premiums and departing insurers. A “death spiral” hasn’t happened! Instead premiums have stabilized and patients and insurers have stuck around.
- Premiums for a benchmark ACA healthcare plan have risen about 1% for 2020, less than the inflation rate. In some areas premiums will actually decline.
- Enrollment has remained steady even though the Trump Administration tried to kill it by cutting funding for promotion, patient outreach and things to make ACA run smoothly.
- This is the straight second year of marginal premium fluctuation.
- The Trump administration is trying to kill the ACA. They will be advocating in the Supreme Court that the ACA is unconstitutional. THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS HAD THREE YEARS TO OFFER A BETTER PLAN. THEY HAVE DONE NOTHING!
- If the ACA is found unconstitutional, we will be back in a world where insurance companies deny health coverage to people with preexisting conditions and prices again escalate. “Nearly 54 million Americans under age 65—(with preexisting conditions that’s) 27% of that population—could face coverage limitations if insurers are once again allowed to single them out. ”
- Even with the success of the ACA twenty-eight million Americans remain uninsured, and many who have lost their jobs during the pandemic are losing their employer-based insurance.
Read the full article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/obamacare-is-working-194659034.html
“Improving the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s Insurance Coverage Provisions: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians (ACP)”
ACP Journals
By: Ryan A. Crowley, Dr. S. Bornstein, May 7, 2019
Much more can be done to improve the American health care system. “… the American College of Physicians (ACP) recommends action to enhance and expand eligibility for health insurance financial subsidies; stabilize health insurance marketplaces; provide sustained funding for outreach, education, and enrollment assistance activities; test and implement a mechanism to encourage enrollment; expand Medicaid in all states; and establish a public insurance option to increase competition.”
The following are some of the recommendations:
- The eligibility requirements for premium tax credits and cost sharing should be redesigned to enhance individual market insurance affordability.
- The federal government should stabilize the marketplace by establishing a permanent reinsurance program.
- Federal and state regulators should limit the sale of individual market plans that do not comply with ACA regulations.
- Sustained funding is needed for dedicated outreach such as consumer assistance, education to promote open enrollment, etc. Such funding has been limited by the Trump Administration.
- A program to ensure that all individuals enroll in coverage is needed. Possibilities are an auto-enrollment program, a penalty for failing to enroll, and/or an individual mandate.
- All states should fully expand Medicaid eligibility without financially burdensome premiums, or cost-sharing requirements, lock-out periods, benefit cuts, or mandatory work or community engagement policies that reduce enrollment among vulnerable individuals.
- To encourage market competition, Congress should enact legislation to authorize the development of a public insurance plan (PIP). The PIP would compete with private insurers and through competition drive prices down and provide access to a range of coverage options in every area.
Read the full article: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M18-3401?_ga=2.29715771.50406138.1589958185-2073294179.1589958185
“The ACA is working – let’s make it work even better”
American Hospital Association
By: Richard J. Pollack, June 7, 2019
“The verdict: The ACA is having a positive impact on the health of individuals and communities. It has increased access, reduced disparities and improved equity of care among cancer patients, and it is helping providers identify ovarian cancer earlier so patients can start treatment sooner. … This is good news … and it’s why America’s hospitals and health systems support building upon the ACA and strengthening the existing public-private coverage framework. By making changes to strengthen the system we have, we’ll see even more good news.”
It’s clear that the Republicans misrepresented ACA and did everything they could to cripple it. Accused it of creating “death panels.” Florida and sixteen other states have chosen punish their citizens. Florida is among the states that have done the least to preserve the Affordable Care Act’s gains. Florida uses the federally-run exchange, so residents enroll through HealthCare.gov, but unfortunately Florida has a Medicaid coverage gap because the state has rejected federal funding to expand Medicaid.
Read the full article: https://www.aha.org/news/perspective/2019-06-07-perspective-aca-working-lets-make-it-work-even-better
“The big secret about the Affordable Care Act: It’s working just fine”
The Washington Post,
By: Ezekiel Emanuel, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the
University of Pennsylvania, October 31,2018
“Despite the Trump administration’s best sabotage efforts, the exchanges are succeeding. Indeed, by almost every metric, the exchanges are now stable and even thriving.”
“First, enrollment is strong. During last year’s enrollment period, nearly 12 million Americans bought insurance on the exchanges, and more than 25 percent of them were first-time customers.”
“In 2017, the Trump administration cut the open-enrollment period by more than half, made Healthcare.gov unavailable most Sunday mornings, slashed funding for advertising by 90 percent and cut funding for enrollment navigators by 40 percent. Republicans also canceled cost-sharing subsidies for insurers the month before open enrollment and repealed the individual mandate to sow confusion and chaos in the exchanges.”
“According to CMS, of the 39 states on Healthcare.gov, five had double-digit declines, led by Tennessee with a drop of more than 25 percent. Other populous states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, had declines exceeding 14 percent.” Premiums are lower now for Americans shopping on the exchanges.
Read the full article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-big-secret-about-the-affordable-care-act-its-working-just-fine/2018/10/31/068da248-dd41-11e8-85df-7a6b4d25cfbb_story.html