As sign ups have flown past 8 million, President Obama used a surprise press conference to demolish Republicans for being totally wrong about the ACA.
Video:
The president said:
This thing is working. I’ve said before this law won’t solve all the problems in our healthcare system. We know we’ve got more work to do, but we now know for a fact that repealing the Affordable Care Act would increase the deficit, raise premiums for millions of Americans, and take insurance away from millions more. Which is why, as I’ve said before, I find it strange that the Republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been. They still can’t bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working.
They said nobody would sign up. They were wrong about that.
They said it would be unaffordable for the country. They were wrong about that.
They were wrong to keep trying to repeal a law that is working, when they have no alternative answer for millions of Americans with preexisting conditions who would be denied coverage, and a woman would be charged more for just being a woman again.
I know every American isn’t going to agree with this law, but I think we can agree that it is well past time to move on as a country and refocus our energy on the issues that the American people are most concerned about, and that continues to be the economy. These endless, fruitless repeal efforts come at a cost.
The fifty or so votes Republicans have taken to repeal this law could have been fifty votes to create jobs by investing in things like infrastructure and innovation, or fifty votes to make it easier for middle class families to send their kids to college, or fifty votes to raise the minimum wage, or restore unemployment insurance that they let expire for folks working hard to find a new job.
The point is the repeal debate is, and should be over. The Affordable Care Act is working.
It is interesting and predictable that the media had absolutely no interest in discussing the success of the ACA. President Obama didn’t just announce that the law is working. He provided the numbers that Republicans and Fox News have been clamoring for. The fact that 35% of the sign ups are from people under age 35 destroys the Republican talking point that only old and sick people were signing up. They now have more than enough young people enrolled to make it work.
Obama said what he had needed to say for a long time. Republicans have been and remain, completely wrong about this law. Their position of wanting to take health insurance away from millions of Americans is become less defensible each day.
It was a smooth move by the White House to use the president speaking at the daily press briefing to get all of the networks to cover the positive news about the Affordable Care Act. This is the same media that turned down the president’s request for a primetime press conference on the ACA, but the White House got their coverage by using the fact that the media can’t resist surprises and breaking news.
According to an accompanying fact sheet released by the White House, here are the numbers:
– 8 million people signed up for private insurance in the Health Insurance Marketplace. For states that have Federally-Facilitated Marketplaces, 35 percent of those who signed up are under 35 years old and 28 percent are between 18 and 34 years old, virtually the same youth percentage that signed up in Massachusetts in their first year of health reform.
– 35% of the enrollees in the federal marketplace are under age 35.
– 3 million young adults gained coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act by being able to stay on their parents plan.
– 3 million more people were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP as of February, compared to before the Marketplaces opened. Medicaid and CHIP enrollment continues year-round.
– 5 million people are enrolled in plans that meet ACA standards outside the Marketplace, according to a CBO estimate. When insurers set premiums for next year, they are required to look at everyone who enrolled in plans that meet ACA standards, both on and off the Marketplace.
– 5.7 million people will be uninsured in 2016 because 24 States have not expanded Medicaid.
The numbers above are proving that Republicans were totally wrong. The ACA is working, and the GOP plan to run on killing Obamacare is blowing up in their faces.
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