Americans are sticking with Obamacare

Enduring attack after attack, the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare has yet to collapse. Despite the GOP trying to kill it, repeatedly it proves to fill a substantial gap found in the U.S. health care system. It should cause those who try to kill the bill to stop and reflect.

Admitted by Trump’s Health and Human Services Department 11.8 million people use the Obamacare marketplaces to sign up for private health insurance even with the advertising fund being slashed and shortening the open enrollment period by half. While HHS was playing up the rise in insurance premiums, most people using the Obamacare exchanges were receiving federal subsidies that kept their costs relative to last year. Premiums on average for subsidies are only $89 per month.

Peoples votes are reflected by the enrollment decisions made. Many Americans choose getting coverage through the Obamacare markets over their employer’s coverage. This disproves myth by the GOP stating Americans are forced into buying junk insurance they don’t want. Americans seek our insurance to guard against large medical cost gaining peace of mind.

Additionally, Republican’s making fictional claims that Obamacare has been collapsing. Kaiser study showed a stabilization in the 2017 insurance markets despite efforts by Trump to undermine the law. Other findings with the Congressional Budget Office as well as other independent analysts concur.

With that said, enrollment’s down almost 1 million from the peak of 2016 with 12.7 million enrollees. This decline is found in the states allowing the federal government to run insurance marketplaces while enrollments in states running their own marketplaces were found to hold steady. Some insures decided to exit the market completely.

Consequences of a new wave of attacks launched by Republicans won’t be completely visible for months or years. Next year the Obamacare’s Individual mandate will be eliminated as set by the Congressional Republicans. Americans relying on the law’s subsidies and protections continue to buy insurance while there’ll be less incentive for those feeling healthy to purchase health insurance.  New rules by the HHS threaten to break down the enrollment numbers of healthy customers for comprehensive Obamacare plans.  This done through the promotions of skimpy, cheaper plans making it more difficult for insurers trying to maintain financial stability for plans covering healthcare for sick individuals. Bills that lawmakers negotiated for bipartisan Obamacare stabilization failed to be passed by Congress.

While Obamacare will keep serving as an important need. It is discouraging to see it could easily be made even more useful if only Republicans could focus less on sabotage and focus more on improvement of our health care system.