Far from dying under the reckless Trump Administration, the Affordable Care Act is covering more Americans than when Trump took office:
Some 10.6 million people were enrolled in Obamacare in February, up 3% from the same time a year earlier, according to new federal figures released Monday. This comes despite a 3.7% decline in the number of people who signed up for 2018 coverage during open enrollment in the fall.
Those who selected 2018 plans during open enrollment were more likely to complete their enrollment by paying their first month’s premiums — only 9% failed to do so, compared to 15% the prior year.
This year’s Obamacare enrollees are also more likely to receive federal subsidies to help pay their premiums. Some 87% of this group qualified for government assistance, compared to 84% who were typically subsidized in 2017 [Tami Luhby, “Obamacare Enrollment Inches Higher,” CNN, 2018.07.02].
Like his promise to repeal the ACA, Trump has failed to keep his promise to make health care less expensive for everyone. CNN reports that ACA premiums for 2018 rose 27%, compared to 21% in 2017. The ACA subsidizes premiums to keep folks on the ACA Silver plans from paying more than 10% of their income for insurance… but that just means that Trump’s failure to deliver on his promises means increased federal spending and federal debt.
Maybe Trump should impose tariffs on medical tourism… since that would make as much sense as anything else he does.
Republicans can’t kill Obamacare. Republicans can’t kill Roe v Wade. That leave the questions … “When is Obama coming for my guns? When is my Doctor going to quit? When is MS13 going to come streaming across the border infected with ebola?” Hmmmmm?
trump said that he was gonna provide a better healthcare plan than the ACA and deliver it to everyone for less money! He did not do that, he lied, surprise! But one thing he is doing, he is making medical tourism a real deal for Americans. Most South Dakotan’s have never been out of the state, some of those that have left here have gone to places like India for heart procedures along with joint replacements. Thailand as well, as there are some of the best orthopedic surgeons in the world practicing there.
So don’t despair trump voters, just get a passport and squirrel away some money (keep in mind that the Euro is worth a lot more than a dollar) and then head on over to where it is you need the services. Your total knee replacement will be less than half of what you would have to spend here, and that includes air fare and lodging.
Dental work, head to Mexico. You can get implants and a full array of procedures done for a fraction of what you would pay in South Dakota. Or, you can head for the EU for dental work that would cover the cost of your vacation, depending on what you need done of course.
@Jerry … Jared Polis (Dem candidate for CO Governor) is running on healthcare, primarily. We’re putting together a regional, single-payer, health care public option similar to Medicare. Probably Cali, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. We also want to lure more private insurance plans to the state’s health care exchange to drive down costs on the individual market.
In short, the Trump administration is about selfishness. We western states have to be selfish and take care of ourselves, first. It’s sad but there are going to be states where things don’t get better very fast.
Obama promised to make it cheaper and it never happened.
Why doesn’t your article say anything about people not being able to afford the deductibles?
Jace … You can’t take parts off my fuel injection and say my Mercedes isn’t a great car. Had Obamacare been instituted and operated as written every promise would have been over fulfilled. Starting with Marco Rubio getting the risk corridors removed and every little piece Republicans removed to sabotage the program, the blame isn’t on Obamacare. We’re moving on to Medicare For All. Why don’t you say that because of Republican interference people can’t afford their deductibles? Never mind. We’ll bring it up in the next election cycle.
It was fully implemented before Obama left office.
The risk corridors were not perpetual.
It’s obvious you know nothing about the ACA.
No, it wasn’t fully implemented in it’s original state. The risk corridors were defunded in 2014 and not funded in 2015 as was written.
How’s Denmark? Hope you don’t get food poisoning but if you do, they have great healthcare … even for non-citizens.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/25/marco-rubio/rubio-we-wiped-out-obamacare-bailout-fund-insuranc/
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/309902-obamacares-risk-corridor-corruption-never-ends
Read and learn Porter.
It was going to end in 2016 no matter what.
ACA was failing even before the risk corridors were shut down.
I know, Jason. Risk corridors ran from 2014 – 2016 to help insurance companies stabilize their payouts until the risk was lessened. Without them insurance companies went to a negative profit curve and had to raise deductibles. Thus, the Republican removal of risk corridors were directly responsible for high deductibles.
No, ACA couldn’t have been failing then because ACA isn’t failing now.
FYI … My health insurance background goes back to the mid 70’s when as an elected Mountain States Teamsters official I was in charge of health insurance procurement for my members. I helped research, write and pass the ACA. What did you do? Ride along with the Kuwaiti Navy?
The article I linked to says you are full of it.
The exchanges’ finances haven’t worked as planned. At 11.1 million, this year’s enrollment is less than half what the Congressional Budget Office expected. On top of that, young people only made up 28 percent of enrollees in 2016 — well below the 40 percent needed to keep the exchanges financially viable.
With so many coverage providers hemorrhaging cash, not many plans have been able to pay into the risk corridor pot. In fact, 2014 collections totaled only $382 million — nowhere near the $2.87 billion promised to insurers.
And so, in the program’s first year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made good on only 12.6 percent of insurers’ risk-corridor claims.
The exchanges’ finances haven’t worked as planned because of Republican sabotage of the ACA. We’re still chugging along helping the needy with their basic rights to healthcare in USA.
“You can’t take parts off my fuel injection system and have validity calling my Mercedes junk.”
Paul Lyin’ Ryan claimed he couldn’t find the billions for risk corridors right before the election and shortly after premiums went up he somehow found around 50 billion for the military.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-risk-corridor-moda-20170210-story.html
Judge orders Congress-i e wingnuts, to pay insurer 214 million the ACA promised to pay and wingnuts tried to renege on. Just another stoopid right wing attack on a legal government program.
Porter and Mike, republicans like Jason absolutely do not want the ACA to be successful in any way shape or form. It ticks them off something else when they hear about how people were able to afford insurance for the first time in years. It’s not called the Party of NO for nothing.
They would rather have people suffer and go without health insurance. Just ask pubs in Pierre.
The ACA is hurting the middle class Jenny.
That’s a fact.
Jason, are you meaning rising health premiums are hurting Americans? Actually, here in MN our bipartisan Legislature passed a measure to offer rebate checks and tax credits to help offset rising health premiums if you purchased health insurance through MN SURE.
Now are you going to try telling me that will hurt the middle class? It’s not a fix all, but has helped people here towards the high costs of having health insurance. I’m a Medicare For All supporter. Until Medicare is opened up to everyone, will I be satisfied with the US Healthcare System.
In the mean time, we have the ACA, and I know many people that have been helped by the ACA. People on all sides need to work to make it better instead of hate it b/c it’s associated with Obama and the Democrats.
I’m talking about the cost of health care, ins premiums and deductibles. The major thing though is the ACA never addressed the cost of healthcare. The competition needs to be put back into healthcare.
Such a simple mind with zero solutions. The competition needs to be removed from healthcare as it is in the rest of the world. Healthcare is a utility and when regulated, as such provides the best and cheapest product for the most people.
~The U.S. citizens spent $8,233 on health per person in 2016. Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland are the next highest spenders, but in the same year, through their taxes they all spent at least $3,000 less per person. The average spending on health care among the other 33 developed OECD countries was $3,268 per person.
You are comparing utilities to doctors?
LOL Your simple mind who helped write the ACA couldn’t even make it work without taxpayer bailouts.
The free market works Porter. Right now the healthcare industry is not a free market.
Extremely high risk insurance is already sold as a government utility. i.e. Crop insurance and flood insurance. Applying the free market to those products proved unworkable and regulating them as a utility made them affordable.
Never get complacent and think you won anything,
Kentucky just dumped parts of medicaid to 500,000 people. No good reason except that a federal judge blocked mandated work .
Not many people buy flood insurance and crop insurance compared to health insurance.
Your analogy is a failure.
So 500,000 people weren’t working so they could get free healthcare Debbie, did the law include provisions that they didn’t have to work if they couldn’t?
The failure is your inability to contradict the success of the crop and flood insurance sold by our government and the success of healthcare sold by governments around the world. Your refusal to use anything but Republican talking points is what holds you back in life. In short … you just make stuff up.
The failure is you to explain how crop insurance is the same thing as health insurance.
Porter doesn’t know that crop insurance is not sold by the Government. I feel sorry for him.
OK, Jace. You just made that up. I’ve used enough time with you for a while. Someday something catastrophic will happen in your life and you’ll see the light of compromise of philosophies. Until then, stumble away.
~ In the United States, a subsidized multi-peril federal insurance program, administered by the Risk Management Agency, is available to most farmers. The program is authorized by the Federal Crop Insurance Act (which is actually title V of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, P.L. 75-430), as amended.
The uninsured rate in Kentucky plunged after Obamacare began in 2014, falling from 20.4% in 2013 to 7.8% in 2016, according to Gallup. It was the largest decrease of any state.
Crop insurance is sold through a gubmint/private collaboration. Private insurers sell and the gubmint oversees and sets prices.
Lenders make it mandatory for borrowers to insure crops to cover loans.
Did anyone bother to read the judge’s decision as to why forcing people to work was disallowed?
PS … crop insurance isn’t the same as health insurance, obviously. The risk of crop insurance to the insurers is similar to the risk taken by sellers of health insurance. Thus, regulating health insurance as a utility is the cheapest and most effective way to provide the product to the most customers.
Free market does not work in healthcare.
At this point its worth noting that in an attempt to convince us that competition in the insurance industry is robust and proof that the free market is working, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s biggest trade group, brags that it represents more than 1,300 companies. The problem is that there are far too many insurers. There are so many that not a single one of them is big enough to reduce hospital charges the way Medicare can.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-obamacare-sabotage_us_5b3b9dede4b09e4a8b27e32a
This is interesting and accurate.
Porter,
Crop insurance is sold by private companies and is backed by the Federal Government.
So no, the Federal Government does not sell crop insurance.
Porter said:
The risk of crop insurance to the insurers is similar to the risk taken by sellers of health insurance
Please prove that statement Porter.
“Crop insurance is sold by private companies and is backed by the Federal Government.
So no, the Federal Government does not sell crop insurance.” Gwaaad, you’re dense Jason. Read what you said and think about it. The Feds are not only selling, they are guaranteeing their sale.
Are they backing it 100% Jerry?
One way or another, a complete backing.
Jason. My premiums have increased from $80/month to $240/month. $80/month were during Obama years, $240/month happened AFTER the Jan 2017 inauguration. It is predicted another jump for 2019 of 17%-25% for me. My insurance company flat out told me it is due to uncertainty of our government decisions on health care.
so yeah, Obama’s fault. (shaking head) At this point, GOP controls all three branches of government. They aren’t doing anything to make health coverage better, accessible, or affordable. In fact, they want to make it easier to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions! (translation – GOP is continually making things worse)