What is your ongoing opinion of the Affordable Care Act? (Title Edited)

[adaher]

The sad thing about ACA repeal is that the Republicans will campaign a little on it but it won’t be a centerpiece. The reason it’s sad is because if they run the table, that will probably be the first thing they will do and it’s only fair to inform the public. Hopefully the Democrats will do it if the Republicans won’t. If they scream from the rooftops, “Republicans are going to repeal Obamacare!” that would have the benefit of being true and keeping the public informed. And perhaps that’s what the public will want. We’ll see.

I’m also still interested in finding out what Democrats will do to fix ACA, a law they sternly insisted in 2014 was in need of fixing and they couldn’t say for sure whether they would have voted for it or not. Such stances are also not very good for giving the public an honest look at the candidates. If Democrats say it needs fixing, they need to say what they would fix, not use the need for fixes as political cover, to make it seem like they are expressing disapproval of the law when they aren’t.

[2ManyTacos]

The uninsured rate is down to a historic low of 11.4 percent.

Opponents of the ACA had better quickly explain to us all why that is a disaster.

[rsa]

Forbes, not know for their liberal views has this story about a different poll by the Urban Institute.

Survey: America’s Uninsured Rate Is Down To 10% - And Falling

New data has raised a tantalizing possibility: That for the first time, America’s uninsured rate will fall below 10%.

(If it hasn’t already; the most recently reported data was collected three months ago.)

The findings come from the Urban Institute’s Health Reform Monitoring Survey, a quarterly survey of non-elderly Americans.

And as of March 2015, the Urban Institute’s survey found that 10.0% of nonelderly adults were uninsured, down from 17.8% in September 2013, before the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges first launched.

No major survey has ever found that the uninsured rate in America has hit single digits.

However, the uninsured rate is already down to 7.5% in states that have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, Urban researchers concluded.

[ElvisL1ves]

@adaher

The sad thing about ACA repeal is that the Republicans will campaign a little on it but it won’t be a centerpiece.

No, that isn’t really *the *sad thing, is it now?

[rsa]

You know, it would be nice if the ACA opponents made cogent arguments arguing their position rather than making S**T up.

My two cents, not directed to any particular post.

[Gyrate]

According to this Forbes article, the increase in the number of insured people has markedly reduced the number of unpaid hospital bills.

A snapshot of this trend could be seen in last week’s earnings report of Universal Health Services (UHS), a large multi-state investor-owned operator of hospitals, which reported uncompensated care declined in the second quarter “as it has the last six quarters now,” Universal Health chief financial officer Steve Filton told analysts on the company’s second quarter earnings call.

Universal Health said its acute care hospitals have seen a “decrease in the aggregate of charity care, uninsured discounts and provision of doubtful accounts as a percentage of gross charges” this year through June 30 compared to the same period in 2014. Universal Health’s cost providing for so-called “doubtful accounts” dropped 17% to $274 million during the first half of the year from $331 million during the six-month period ended June 30, 2014.

[Bolding mine]

If this is a wider trend, I wonder to what extent this will result in lower costs (or, to be realistic, smaller rates of increase) as the costs of those services no longer have to be passed on to paying patients.

[Fear_Itself]

Uninsured rate down more than expected in states that embraced ACA:

Nationwide, the uninsured rate fell from 17.3 percent in 2013 to 11.7 percent through the first half of this year, following two years of sign-ups for private health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges and for expanded Medicaid benefits, the pollsters found.
The contrast between Obamacare-friendly states and those hostile to the law is stark. Rhode Island has the lowest uninsured rate, 2.7 percent, while Texas comes in last at 20.8 percent.

http://huff.to/1IDApRf

[Gyrate]

@2ManyTacos

The uninsured rate is down to a historic low of 11.4 percent.

@rsa

Survey: America’s Uninsured Rate Is Down To 10% - And Falling

@Fear_Itself

Uninsured rate down more than expected in states that embraced ACA:
http://huff.to/1IDApRf

Nationwide, the uninsured rate fell from 17.3 percent in 2013 to 11.7 percent through the first half of this year, following two years of sign-ups for private health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges and for expanded Medicaid benefits, the pollsters found.

I R confused. Different polls using different methodologies?

[Fear_Itself]

@Gyrate

I R confused. Different polls using different methodologies?

Different polls, but all within the margin of error.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

[

Nearly a million people signed up for health insurance under President Barack Obama’s law even after the official enrollment season ended, helping push the share of uninsured Americans below 10 percent and underscoring how hard it could be for Republicans to dismantle the program.

The Health and Human Services Department said Thursday that 943,934 new customers have signed up since open enrollment ended on Feb. 22, benefiting from “special enrollment periods” keyed to life changes and other circumstances.

](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_OVERHAUL_SIGN_UPS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-08-13-14-06-17)
Whew! What a failure of a program, huh? It’s just ruining the country, isn’t it? Everyone’s life in America is now measurably worse than it was before the ACA, right? :rolleyes:

[Lobohan]

Any of the conservative Dopers want to admit they were wrong yet? Adaher? Anyone?

[inscrutable]

Heard a news report about this today, and the official giving the statement went on to say that she HOPED that the enrollees wouldn’t drop out due to premium and deductible costs.

Hope and change…

What changed for me is that I never had a $3000 deductible in employer-sponsored health insurance before this.

[kenobi_65]

@inscrutable

What changed for me is that I never had a $3000 deductible in employer-sponsored health insurance before this.

I have.

I’m currently on COBRA from the job from which I was laid off at the beginning of 2015; I’m freelancing at the moment, and my options were either (a) continue with COBRA, or (b) get an individual policy through the Marketplace.

My previous employer was a small company (under 100 employees), and while they offered health insurance from a top-tier provider (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois), it was a “high deductible” plan: $5000 annual deductible, but no co-pays after that $5000, and the company contributed $2500 towards our HSAs to help cover that deductible gap.

I couldn’t find an ACA plan that was (a) substantially cheaper than my COBRA payments, and (b) didn’t have a huge deductible, like the policy I already had. So, I stayed on COBRA.

When open enrollment comes back around, if I’m still freelancing (there’s a high possibility I’ll be a permanent employee by then), I’ll likely have to go with an ACA plan for 2016, since COBRA won’t last forever.

[inscrutable]

COBRA, yeah, been there, done that.

Seems to me that a truly useful and beneficial health care reform plan would help the unemployed, those “in-between” jobs and those over 55 who won’t find another because age discrimination is OK.

[Pashnish_Ewing]

@inscrutable

COBRA, yeah, been there, done that.

Seems to me that a truly useful and beneficial health care reform plan would help the unemployed, those “in-between” jobs and those over 55 who won’t find another because age discrimination is OK.

Dont worry, I’m sure that will be a part of the “replace”.

[Lobohan]

@inscrutable

COBRA, yeah, been there, done that.

Seems to me that a truly useful and beneficial health care reform plan would help the unemployed, those “in-between” jobs and those over 55 who won’t find another because age discrimination is OK.

Well then, you should place blame squarely on the GOP. Because there were exactly the necessary number of Democratic votes to get the ACA passed against the GOP filibuster.

Exactly. Which means we got what the most conservative Dems were okay with. If the GOP either dropped the filibuster, or actually voted their consciences, a more beneficial law could have been passed.

[Fear_Itself]

@Lobohan

Well then, you should place blame squarely on the GOP. Because there were exactly the necessary number of Democratic votes to get the ACA passed against the GOP filibuster.

Exactly. Which means we got what the most conservative Dems were okay with. If the GOP either dropped the filibuster, or actually voted their consciences, a more beneficial law could have been passed.

Or if the GOP didn’t demand 150 amendments, and then still not vote for it.

[inscrutable]

In any case, truly a shame that it didn’t end up being closer to what was expected and promised, and remains a political divide.

[2ManyTacos]

Walker & Rubio recently put out their health care agendas, and per the GOP norm they’re laughably devoid of specifics. The more we start acknowledging that the GOP is philosophically opposed to anything that purports to achieve the ACA’s goals, the more the general public will (hopefully) begin to realize that the GOP DOES NOT DO health care policy.

[Fear_Itself]

@2ManyTacos

Walker & Rubio recently put out their health care agendas, and per the GOP norm they’re laughably devoid of specifics.

And yet, Bobby Jindal still slams it as way too liberal.

“In Governor Walker’s plan, a new entitlement is created for every single American human being from the time they are born right up until they grow old and become eligible for Medicare," Jindal said. “It is frankly shocking that a Republican candidate for President would author a cradle to grave plan like this.”

“When did conservatism die? When did we accept the idea of dependence on government?" Jindal went on. "Governor Walker is confused here. In his stump speech he has some clever lines about how the Fourth of July is about independence, not dependence. I like those lines. But with this Obamacare lite health care proposal, he’s going to have to drop those lines from his speech.”

Piling on further insult, a staffer with Jindal’s campaign reportedly said they suspected Walker “collaborated on [his plan] with Bernie Sanders,” the Vermont senator and self-described democratic socialist who is running for president as a Democrat.