It turns out a lot of those negative predictions you’ve been hearing for so long about Obamacare didn’t come true.
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The news has been dominated over the last week with ongoing coverage of the violence in Gaza and the downing of that Malaysian airplane over Ukraine. And rightly so, after all wars and disasters in which hundreds of people die are a lot more newsworthy than things that go well or the continuation of the status quo.
In short, the news is always more interested in disasters than non-disasters.
Health care is becoming a normal issue again, and it’s about time.
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Which of course brings me to the one of the biggest non-disasters of the last year. If you can think back to October of last year the analysis was pretty clear when it came to Obamacare. It was an epic disaster that was going to destroy both Obama’s Presidency and liberalism in general.
But as Sarah Kliff pointed out last week over at Vox, a huge number of predicted disasters simply never occurred and instead the new system is working pretty well:
These days, Obamacare seems to be working reasonably well. More Americans have health insurance now than did a year ago. People who bought Obamacare say they’re generally pretty happy with their health insurance plans and that they can mostly get a doctor appointment within two weeks.
Looking back at expectations set last fall and this spring shows how terribly pundits and politicians expected Obamacare to go—and how much of the predicted disaster never actually happened.
To summarize Kliff’s article, the biggest predictions of doom broke down as follows: the website was never going to work, and even if it did nobody would want to buy individual plans, but even if people did buy plans it would never meet Obamacare’s own goals, because only people who already had plans were going to sign up, meaning Obamacare would cause fewer people to have insurance, and thus we would all have to pay higher premiums.
As John Boehner put it back in November, “When you step back and look at the totality of this … I don’t think it’s ever going to work.”
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Well, stepping back and looking at the totality of it from July of 2014, it’s pretty clear that none of these disasters actually materialized. Instead the website now works fine, eight million people bought individual plans (which exceeds Obamacare’s goals), many of whom were previously uninsured, driving the rate of uninsured individuals down, and there’s been no major spike in premiums. In other words, the system works quite well.
Taking from the rich to give to the poor is something that conservatives will probably never be fans of.
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Which isn’t to say that conservatives or others should ever have to like Obamacare. A mainstay of the program is transferring wealth from upper income people to lower income people in the form of higher taxes on the rich and subsidies for low-income folks to buy plans. And taking from the rich to give to the poor is something that conservatives will probably never be fans of. Or maybe you’re a libertarian who would like to go back to a 19th century system of no insurance and no rules on who can provide health care. From a political standpoint, to each his own in all these matters.
But what has changed over the last year is that Obamacare is no longer some project that might “succeed” or “fail.” Instead its provisions are now every bit as much part of our health care system as our dysfunctional policy of subsidizing employee provided health care, or laws requiring a license to practice medicine.
In short, health care is becoming a normal issue again, and it’s about time. After all, there are plenty of very real disasters for the media to cover.
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53% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Obamacare, up 8% since last month. This is the largest unfavorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the survey’s four year history, a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds. Only 37% of people actually have a favorable opinion of the law.
Obamacare lost favorability with women, whites, and those in the low and middle income brackets, along with other groups – including Democrats.
You mean none of these disasters have happened to you. Wow you are arrogant!!! They have happened to plenty of people. Nobody you give a damn about, but they have happened. That is what I hate about liberals. They can’t look beyond their own circle.
You have to be kidding. Are you that much of an Obama sycophant to really make this argument, particularly in light of the recent D.C. Circuit ruling rendering subsidies to approximately 5 million people in 36 states void? Just to give you a peek inside my own personal experience with Obamacare, an experience as I understand it is not unique. As of next Thursday, my health insurance plan that I have enjoyed for 8 years is being canceled. Why? When I asked the carrier they told me because of Obamacare, that the policy did not rise to required provisions of… Read more »
It appears that the premiums are going up 15 to 21 percent. The administration appears to be upset that the insurance companies are putting together their rates now, before the elections. Also many concerns because of the high deductibles.
Shhhhh, Keep this quiet like main stream media does.
“This is not a success story. It’s a survival story.” “The exchanges have enrolled some 4.2 million people (though it’s unclear how many have paid their premiums, and how many will do so by March 31)” “The share of enrollees that are young and healthy – an important target group under the law – hasn’t budged, remaining stubbornly at 25 percent of total enrollment. This group of “young invincibles” is important, generally, because they tend to be healthier and are needed to offset costs for the sicker enrollees.” “…..to judge exactly what Obamacare’s risk pool will look like going forward.… Read more »
“This is not a success story. It’s a survival story.”
But let’s be honest, it’s not been a full year … let’s see what the renewal premiums will be.
If you want people to be able to afford healthcare here are some suggestions: (1) Defund the UN and withdraw America from it. It serves no useful purpose and has no basis to even exist on American soil. (2) Stop all foreign aid. If we are going to redistribute money, let’s do it for fellow Americans. (3) Abolish the IRS, DEA and BATF. These three agencies are not listed anywhere in the Constitution and violate the Bill Of Rights on a daily basis. Sell off the buildings, vehicles and any other assets and apply the monies towards our debt, or… Read more »
I second that motion.