WASHINGTON (AP) — The last time President Barack Obama was in the White House was on Jan. 20, 2017, when he left to escort his successor — bent on overturning “Obamacare” — to the Capitol to be inaugurated.
Obama returns to the White House on Tuesday for a moment he can savor. His signature Affordable Care Act is now part of the fabric of the American health care system, and President Joe Biden is looking to extend its reach.
Sign-ups under the health law have increased under Biden’s stewardship, and more generous taxpayer subsidies have cut costs for enrollees, albeit temporarily.
“President Joe Biden’s popularity numbers are at an all-time low of 40%.” – THE NEW YORK POST, MARCH 25, 2022
Biden and Obama are marking the 12th anniversary of the law that back in 2010 the then-vice president had memorably called a “big (expletive) deal.”
Its staying power has been enhanced by three Supreme Court victories and an emphatic thumbs-down vote by the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., which took the wind out of President Donald Trump’s efforts to repeal and replace it.
The law was such a bugaboo in 2010 that Democrats rarely invoked it as they went into a midterm election that turned out to be, in Obama’s own words, a “shellacking.”
Now, Democrats are hoping the political equation will work to their advantage, and that a focus on shoring up the tween-age health law can help them avoid a debacle at the polls this November … read more.
The Disappointing Affordable Care Act
Brian Blase, Sep 23, 2020
FORBES – The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, was principally intended to improve health insurance markets for individuals and small businesses, lower health costs, and increase the number of people with insurance. It largely failed.
Health insurance markets are only afloat because of massive federal subsidies and premiums and out-of-pocket obligations significantly increased for families.
While the ACA has led to about 13 million more people with Medicaid, many more have been harmed.
Middle-income families without employer-provided coverage and small businesses and their workers have largely fared worse from higher health care costs as did the nation’s taxpayers who are responsible for funding all of the law’s new spending.
(For an in-depth review of the ACA’s performance ten years after its enactment, see this Galen Institute analysis.)
The ACA Damaged the Individual Market for Health Insurance and Harmed Middle-Income Families and Small Businesses
Prior to the ACA, the individual health insurance market—the place where self-employed people and those without employer-provided coverage shop for coverage—had around 12 million enrollees.
The ACA’s authors expected they were creating a market in which more insurers offered plans and coverage would be affordable. Unfortunately, the reality has been the opposite.
Choices plummeted. Premiums and deductibles spiked for plans that covered fewer providers and hospitals … READ MORE.
