Obamacare – By the Numbers

Obamacare – By the Numbers

There is no denying that the main goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to improve insurance coverage, was a smashing success. After full implementation, 20 million Americans gained insurance coverage and the beneficiaries were widespread and diverse, including 6 million young adults, 9 million White Americans, 4 million Hispanic Americans, and 3 million Black Americans. Further, the proportion of uninsured Americans dropped from 16.0 to 8.6%, which is the lowest rate in America’s history.

And what about costs, since one of the goals of Obamacare was to slow down the growth in health care spending? Amazingly, Obamacare produced the slowest increase in national health care spending in the past six decades. While adding health coverage to 20 million more Americans, the ACA actually slowed the growth of total spending. It was like… magic. Even better, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that Obamacare came in under budget, so much so that repealing Obamacare would add 98 billion dollars per year to the federal budget deficit by 2025.

So why do Republicans hate Obamacare so much? Because Obama stole their idea! He and his colleagues expanded universal coverage with private health care covered by private insurance using market principles to promote free choice, and threw in an individual mandate to guarantee personal responsibility. And then made it a smashing success. And the Republicans still want to take it down. How ironic.  

Actually, it’s more than ironic. To oppose a measure that expands health care according to the governing philosophy of your own party and to attempt to sabotage something that has improved the lives of tens of millions of Americans demonstrate a level of cynicism that is unmatched in politics. In the health care arena, it is no longer clear what the Republican Party actually stands for.