More Evidence That ObamaCare Works
Young adults have long been the group most likely to be uninsured, but thanks to ObamaCare there are nearly a million fewer uninsured young adults since the 2010 law began allowing parents to cover them as dependents on family policies.
Three new surveys released this week show that the gains have occurred despite the recession and the fact young adults are unemployed at nearly double the rate of older Americans.
Under the Affordable Care Act, which has been roundly vilified by Republicans who have challenged it in several court cases, and a few Democrats, as well, parents are able to cover dependents on their health insurance policies up to their 26th birthdays. In the past, children typically lost coverage at age 18 or 21 or when they left college.
The provision is one of several measures in the health law designed as a stopgap until 2014, when the number of uninsured is expected to drop dramatically because preexisting condition exclusions will be eliminated for adults, Medicaid eligibility will be expanded and government subsidies will make private coverage more affordable.
This, of course, is provided that the law is not struck down by the Supreme Court or repealed by Congress.
11 Responses to “More Evidence That ObamaCare Works”
I don’t think there was ever a serious dispute that Obamacare would allow more people to get coverage. The question is whether it makes our health care system more or less sustainable, considered it both on its own as well as part of our overall economy and federal budget.
adelinesdad:
It is much too soon to deduce an answer to that question. A number of models show that it will be more sustainable, but those models do not allow for political chicanery or push backs from the forces that oppose the Affordable Care Act, notably big pharma, big insurance and Big For-Profit hospital chains.
Yes. This is a good sign, but until we have full nationalized healthcare, cradle to grave for ever American citizen, we are still in the stone age with regard to providing what our people have a right too, and, light years behind every modern nation on earth.
Adelinesdad…I believe that the entities you state in your post are all in favor of the healthcare bill. Big Pharma will increase profits since more people will be going to doctors and getting prescriptions. Little will be done to control the cost of drugs as this is one of the few remaining industries that the United States has a large number of companies located in the states and providing jobs. Big Insurance most likely wants this bill as more employers are required to have insurance and the insurance companies will benefit from the larger number of younger, healthier subscriber. And last, big hospital chains will benefit as most of them have a bad debt percentage on gross revenues around 5%. That doesn’t sound like much until you find that the mid size hospitals have around 500M in gross revenues. That is an additional 25M in reduced bad debts. Even if bad debs are only cut by 50%, which is conservative, that is an additional 12.5M to the bottom line.
The problem with the heathcare bill is the impact it will have on Medicare and the state budgets. Substantial cuts are being made to physician reimbursement to pay for some of the programs cost. Additional cuts to medicare is being made to offset the deficits medicare is bringing to the table. Then add the 30M or so additional subscribers to medicaid where the states pay at least 35% and the feds 65% and that is cost shiftiong to the states that they can not afford. Looking at all of the factors (other than the government forcing one to buy services from a private industry) one only needs to look at the problems we now face with Medicare to see how government screws up anything they get their hands on to see how the new healthcare bill will impact America. Last, many physicians are beginng to find it is better to limit practices to non-medicare patients, even if that means closing one day a week. (Cuts staff salary cost)
The only industry that will benefit from this bill is the thousands of new consultants healthcare providers will contract with to see how they can increase revenues and find loopholes the government workers never anticipated. Just look at the thousands that work the Medicare regs to increase reimbursement legally and that is just a fraction of the ones that will be employed to beat the new system going in place in 2014.
Does anyone know of any government program that has not cost more than anticipated? Are any programs written to keep up with the changes in demographics? Are any written to anticipate consultant loopholes? This bill will end up the same as all the others, with our kids complaining about the cost of the program and decreasing benefits.
A few things come to mind:
First, a short one, I do think it’s unconstitutional. Just a fact of the law, not trying to grandstand it.
Second, is there a slippery slope of young people remaining dependent on their parents for too long? And as Adele said, is it sustainable?
Third, and the big one, is we have to seriously do something on health care, either retain Obamacare, adjusted for legality, or do something else to get it out of the cost model for labor and make our health care system more accessible and cheaper.
The thing that infuriates me about the GOP on this issue is they conveniently avoid the fact that our current health care system is actually an impediment to economic growth. It significantly adds to the cost of hiring people, and is yet another problem that is keeping this recovery (such as it is) jobless. Not doing anything but whining and repealing is not helpful.
Yes, Barky, I’ll bet we’ve never managed to repeal anything relating to health care, and the GOP certainly won’t manage to repeal this. Not least because as you say, the pre-ACA rules were demonstrably not working. I think all the repeal talk is just saber-rattling.
What they could do, though, is phase out the tax deduction that keeps employers and insurers in the driver’s seat of the private market, individuals trussed up in the trunk, and accountability dripping out from the oil pan. I understand the Democrats couldn’t do that because unions are invested in their employer-sponsored plans, but perhaps the Republicans could.
I may have missed it, but where in this praise of a yet to be HC plan, does it remind us that these young people are being included in their parents policies. When they hit 27, then we may see a different story.
BTW: I have always, and still am, in favor of the “Mamdate” from an insurance model perspective.
The coverage of children up to age 26 on their parent’s plans was one of the few parts of the bill most people seemed OK with. It’s such a small part of “Obamacare” that to now say that Obamacare works is an exaggeration.
Actually, there is evidence beyond the drop in the young adult insurance rate — the rapid growth in annual government spending on Medicare is slowing down dramatically as a result of reforms built into ObamaCare although enrollment is up as a result of the recession.
Over the year ending in May 2011, Medicare claim costs rose at an annual rate of 2.64 percent, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s Healthcare Economic Medicare Index. That number is down 4.36 percentage points since May 2010, and down 5.53 percentage points since its November 2009 high.
Every modern nation on this planet has full cradle to grave national healthcare. Healthcare better than our healthcare. Healthcare where nobody even thinks about it and certainly don’t worry about losing their homes to pay for it. Imagine what can be done with just a smidge of socialization.
Regarding Healthcare, Big Business greed needs to go away.