Affordable Care Act by the numbers
This snippet from C-SPAN’s weekly journal dispels many of the myths that continue about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The panel consisted of two professionals that are very knowledgeable about the law.
Julie Rovner is the author of “Health Care Policy and Politics A To Z, 3rd Edition (Health Care Policy & Politics A to Z)” and a Senior Correspondent for Kaiser Health News. Margot Sanger-Katz is the New York Times “The Upshot” Health Care Correspondent.
The panel was asked by the host Greta Wodele Brawner if the Affordable Care Act was working. “Of course, it depends who you ask. If you use metrics by the Congressional Budget Office, how many people be expected to sign up for Medicaid and for the exchanges, then, yes, it is,” Julie Rovner said. “Right now, as of today, the numbers are hard to parse because we’re halfway through the sign up for 2015 coverage. The last numbers that the administration reported were about 6.5 million people in the federal exchange, those 37 states. Those include people who were automatically re-enrolled who did not come to the exchange and put in new information. They were automatically re-enrolled in their existing plan or one similar to it. I think there is a little under 2 million new people so far, and that is for coverage that starts January 1st. More people can sign up until February 15th. And the penalties for not having insurance in 2015 go up a considerable amount to $300.5 or 2% of your income, whichever is greater.”
The host then asked if the rate of uninsured has fallen. “That is something we can say with certainty,” said Margot Sanger-Katz. “The number of people without insurance has gone down substantially, and that is a result of the Affordable Care Act. People have signed up for Medicaid and for these new insurance exchanges. Some people have signed up for employer coverage that they turned down before because they are now required to have insurance. The best estimate is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million people have insurance that did not have it before. That is just for 2014. The people signing up for next year, they may bring that number down even more. ”
Please visit the Affordable Care Act Marketplace Calculator to determine all your options. You may even find a less expensive plan.
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