- Jun 3, 2002
- 10,518
- 271
- 136
4-17-14 UPDATE: 8 million enrolled under ACA
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/obamacare-enrollment-8-million-105790.html?hp=t1_3
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-rand-20140408,0,6208659.column#axzz2yMCeLb47
Quick recap of anti-ACA predictions made toward the end of 2013, all of which continue to fail the test of time:
1. "The ACA starting January 1, 2014 will be a calamitous, disorganized mess like the web site". Facts are the beginning of the year came and went, and there were no coverage calamities where people called their insurance company only to be told they didn't have insurance or wouldn't be covered. There were no long lines at the pharmacy for prescription drugs or ER and generally little to no reports of unusual insurance coverage issues that aren't standard fare for said industry (sactoking and the rest can certainly expound on this much more thoroughly). Certainly, no major stories that shows anything remotely widespread.
2. "If you like your insurance you can keep it." An undeniable fact that, of course, is proving to be utterly irrelevant with Rand Corp (and other studies) showing those with cancelled policies comprised less than 1M total persons, and that the net effect is still 9.3M were added since Sept. 2013 anyway (including many cancelled plans), making the point utterly moot. Will have much weaker legs by election day clearly, especially since it barely affects the overwhelming majority of voters personally to begin with. Note that conservatives routinely, some even to this day, throw around 6M as the total number of cancelled policies. We know it's not the case.
3. "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor." No substantial reports this is a widespread problem as of today, April 8th 2014. Narrower networks of doctors, a consequence of cost controls in ACA, doesn't appear to actually mean people are losing their doctors since most (not all, but very much most) have the choice of which plans to choose that include their doctor or not. That ability to choose makes not keeping your doctor far less a talking point, though this one never had much electoral legs to begin with.
4. "Businesses will dump their employees on the exchanges". Not only are many more than 9.3M additional Americans going to be insured when this month is concluded, but employer coverage continues to be strong as unemployment has continued to come down. Has zero electoral legs now that there has been a delay of the employer mandate, with some conservatives previously claiming 100M+ employer plans would be in jeopardy because of the mandate.
5. "Web site is structurally flawed and not fixable". Uh, yeah, sure.
Who knows, perhaps Republicans can use the ACA as enough of a net positive to gain some Senate seats this year, maybe even win back the Senate for 2 years. But not only is this law staying, it's already vastly improved and working better than opposition predicted 3 short months ago. The question they have to ask themselves is, after 4 years of campaigning against Obamacare with zero to show for it (literally, nothing) while also failing to govern in the House at all, when will Repubs start governing again? Immigration? Healthcare? We gonna see anything other than gun votes or show ACA repeal votes?
EDIT; Title slightly altered.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/obamacare-enrollment-8-million-105790.html?hp=t1_3
President Barack Obama called Thursday on Republicans to end their quest to repeal Obamacare and Democrats to forcefully defend and be proud of the law.
In remarks from the White House briefing room, Obama delivered a vigorous defense of the program, which has far exceeded enrollment expectations but remains a liability for Democrats in the midterm elections.
I dont think we should apologize for it, Obama said. I dont think we should be defensive about it. I think there is a strong, good, right story to tell. What the other side is doing and what the other side is offering would strip away protections from those families, and from hundreds of millions of people who had health insurance before the law passed.
Im still puzzled why theyve made this their sole agenda item when it comes to our politics, he added. It is curious.
Obama announced that at least 8 million people have signed up for health insurance through state and federal exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.
I think we can agree that it is well past time to move on, as a country The point is, this debate is and should be over. The Affordable Care Act is working. The American people dont want us re-fighting the battles of the past five years. he said in the White House briefing room.
I find it strange that the Republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been, he continued. They still cant bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working. They said nobody would sign up. They were wrong about that They were wrong to keep trying to repeal a law that is working when they have no alternative answer.
Details released by the Obama administration indicate that about 28 percent of people signing up through HealthCare.gov which serves 36 states were between ages 18 and 34 years old the young invincible age group the White House encouraged to sign up to help offset the cost of covering older, sicker enrollees.
Another 5 million people enrolled in private coverage outside the Obamacare exchanges, and about 3 million more people had enrolled in Medicaid through February, according to administration estimates. Obama sharply criticized states that havent expanded Medicaid, leaving more than 5 million people without access to coverage.
The president also credited his signature health law with restraining health care costs.
Those savings add up to more money that families can spend at businesses, [and] more money that businesses can spend
Not everyone who signs up in the exchange has paid their premium so the enrollment figures will probably drop somewhat. And not everyone who is covered was uninsured before. Still, the numbers beat expectations, giving the administration a chance to reframe the health law as more successful than it began last October.
The Congressional Budget Office this week released an updated projection that the law would cover 12 million newly-insured people this year. And that estimate is bolstered by the results of a large Gallup survey released Wednesday. It estimates 4 percent of Americans are newly insured in 2014 about half of them through the exchanges
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-rand-20140408,0,6208659.column#axzz2yMCeLb47
The long-awaited Rand Corp. study of Obamacare's effect on health insurance coverage was released Tuesday and confirmed the numbers that had been telegraphed for more than a week: At least 9.3 million more Americans have health insurance now than in September 2013, virtually all of them as a result of the law.
That's a net figure, accommodating all those who lost their individual health insurance because of cancellations. The Rand study confirms other surveys that placed the number of people who lost their old insurance and did not or could not replace it -- the focus of an enormous volume of anti-Obamacare rhetoric -- at less than 1 million. The Rand experts call this a "very small" number, less than 1% of the U.S. population age 18 to 64.
The Rand study was eagerly anticipated in part because of the dearth of hard information from other sources, including the federal and state governments, which are still compiling their statistics and may not have a full slate for months.
Rand acknowledges that its figures have limitations -- they're based on a survey sampling, meaning that the breakdowns are subject to various margins of error, and they don't include much of the surge in enrollments in late March and early April. Those 3.2-million sign-ups not counted by Rand could "dramatically affect" the figures on total insureds, the organization said.
A few other important takeaways:
--The number of people getting insurance through their employers increased by 8.2 million. Rand said the increase is likely to have been driven by a decline in unemployment, which made more people eligible for employer plans, and by the incentives in the Affordable Care Act encouraging more employer coverage. The figure certainly undermines the contention by the healthcare law's critics that the legislation gave employers an incentive to drop coverage.
--Of the 3.9 million people counted by Rand as obtaining insurance on the individual exchange market, 36% were previously uninsured. That ratio is expected to rise when the late signups are factored in. Medicaid enrollment increased by 5.9 million, the majority of whom did not have insurance before signing up.
--These figures are only the leading edge of a long-term trend. "It's still early in the life of the ACA," Rand said. Its experts expect more enrollments "as people become more familiar with the law, the individual mandates increase to their highest levels, the employer mandate kicks in, and other changes occur." But their bottom line is that the law already has led to "a substantial increase in insurance coverage."
Quick recap of anti-ACA predictions made toward the end of 2013, all of which continue to fail the test of time:
1. "The ACA starting January 1, 2014 will be a calamitous, disorganized mess like the web site". Facts are the beginning of the year came and went, and there were no coverage calamities where people called their insurance company only to be told they didn't have insurance or wouldn't be covered. There were no long lines at the pharmacy for prescription drugs or ER and generally little to no reports of unusual insurance coverage issues that aren't standard fare for said industry (sactoking and the rest can certainly expound on this much more thoroughly). Certainly, no major stories that shows anything remotely widespread.
2. "If you like your insurance you can keep it." An undeniable fact that, of course, is proving to be utterly irrelevant with Rand Corp (and other studies) showing those with cancelled policies comprised less than 1M total persons, and that the net effect is still 9.3M were added since Sept. 2013 anyway (including many cancelled plans), making the point utterly moot. Will have much weaker legs by election day clearly, especially since it barely affects the overwhelming majority of voters personally to begin with. Note that conservatives routinely, some even to this day, throw around 6M as the total number of cancelled policies. We know it's not the case.
3. "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor." No substantial reports this is a widespread problem as of today, April 8th 2014. Narrower networks of doctors, a consequence of cost controls in ACA, doesn't appear to actually mean people are losing their doctors since most (not all, but very much most) have the choice of which plans to choose that include their doctor or not. That ability to choose makes not keeping your doctor far less a talking point, though this one never had much electoral legs to begin with.
4. "Businesses will dump their employees on the exchanges". Not only are many more than 9.3M additional Americans going to be insured when this month is concluded, but employer coverage continues to be strong as unemployment has continued to come down. Has zero electoral legs now that there has been a delay of the employer mandate, with some conservatives previously claiming 100M+ employer plans would be in jeopardy because of the mandate.
5. "Web site is structurally flawed and not fixable". Uh, yeah, sure.
Who knows, perhaps Republicans can use the ACA as enough of a net positive to gain some Senate seats this year, maybe even win back the Senate for 2 years. But not only is this law staying, it's already vastly improved and working better than opposition predicted 3 short months ago. The question they have to ask themselves is, after 4 years of campaigning against Obamacare with zero to show for it (literally, nothing) while also failing to govern in the House at all, when will Repubs start governing again? Immigration? Healthcare? We gonna see anything other than gun votes or show ACA repeal votes?
EDIT; Title slightly altered.
Last edited: