If you thought Obamacare had failed, think again
The official name for Barack Obama’s reform of the American healthcare system is the Affordable Care Act but it has been dubbed – usually by his opponents – as Obamacare. Reports on the implementation of the legislation have concentrated – at least outside the US – on the initial IT problems and on continued legal challenges, but quietly the Act is transforming health care for the better for millions and millions of Americans.
The details in this news report may only be of interest to Americans, but the clear messages for us all come from these quotes:
“President Barack Obama has not had a good couple of weeks. His foreign policy is going badly, his legislative agenda is stalled, and his party looks likely to lose the Senate. He’s entering the traditional lame-duck years of a presidency and further accomplishments appear increasingly remote.
But less than 10 months after major media outlets were hosting debates with headlines like “Is the Affordable Care Act Beyond Repair?”, Obama’s signature accomplishment is succeeding beyond all reasonable expectation.
A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that in seven major cities that have released data on 2015 premiums, the price of the benchmark Obamacare plan — the second-cheapest silver plan, which the federal government uses to calculate subsidies — is falling. Yes, falling.
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Obamacare has been a political failure for the Democrats — and, frankly, a political failure period. Its passage was a bitter, polarizing war; its launch was multi-month catastrophe; and the law remains unpopular even today. But the law is quietly losing its toxicity: fewer members of Congress are running against it, and Republican policy elites are actively trying to persuade their party to give up on repeal and instead “transcend” Obamacare — which is to say, use it as a platform for their own health-care ideas. This is in part because voters seems to be moving on: Aaron Blake notes that Obamacare now ranks behind “other” in polls asking Americans why the country is off-track.
The electorate moving on means Obamacare’s mounting achievements don’t get nearly the attention of its early failures. But the law, at this point, is doing more than simply defying the doomsayers; it’s proving to be a real policy success.”