Enrollments in the Health Insurance Marketplace increased by 5 million from last year, marking the third consecutive year of record enrollment, as states “lifted” pandemic-era Medicaid protections. , partly due to millions of people being weeded out of the safety net. Biden officials and outside researchers spoke about the health program. The enrollment numbers reflect a nearly 80% jump in enrollment in the ACA since President Biden took office in 2021 and expanded subsidies available to consumers.
“[T]”The American people have made it clear they don't want the Affordable Care Act weakened or repealed; they want it strengthened and protected,” Biden said in a statement.
A broad-based health care program that includes a marketplace for consumers to buy health insurance, federal incentives for states to expand Medicaid, and protections for people with pre-existing health conditions is a hallmark of former President Barack Obama's It was considered a domestic achievement. Shortly after its passage in 2010, Republicans campaigned on a promise to “repeal Obamacare” and used the issue to help retake the House in 2012, the Senate in 2014, and the White House in 2016. became embroiled in a political battle.
But while the program has been subject to multiple efforts to repeal it during President Trump's four-year term, polls on the issue show strong Democratic support, and Republicans in Congress are reluctant to renew attempts to overhaul it. I am cautious about this. Many voters in recent elections credited the health insurance program with helping people buy insurance, and its favorability rating has steadily increased. According to a poll by KFF, a health policy research organization, about 6 in 10 Americans currently say they have a favorable view of the program; In a similar survey, less than half of respondents responded.
Still, that hasn't deterred Trump, a front-runner for this year's Republican presidential nomination, from renewing his attacks on the health care program.
“I don't want to repeal Obamacare, I want to replace it with better health care. Obamacare sucks!!!” Trump wrote in a November 2023 post on his social media platform, Truth Social. So I wrote this: President Trump, who has spent the past decade pledging to repeal and replace the ACA, has yet to develop a health care plan that would provide comparable health coverage at the same or lower cost, analysts say.
The Biden campaign and its allies have embraced the issue, running ads that highlight President Trump's recent attacks, point to the health benefits of the Affordable Care Act, and incorporate Mr. Obama himself. ing.
“With more Americans signing up for the ACA than ever before, it's bizarre that the likely Republican nominee would even consider another repeal attempt,” the Democrat said. said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of the health insurance company Protect Our Care. the advocacy group said in a statement.
According to a KFF poll released last month, about three in five voters (including one in five Republicans) are more likely to vote Democratic than Republican politicians about the future of the Affordable Care Act. I trust you. According to the KFF poll, 70% of Democratic voters said health programs were a “very important” issue for political candidates to discuss, compared to 45% of independents and Republicans. 32% responded.
One reason for the Affordable Care Act's growing popularity is its expansion of Medicaid. Medicaid is separate from private insurance sold on the marketplace and is believed to help millions of low-income Americans obtain insurance through government health programs. Overall Medicaid enrollment has also swelled to nearly 95 million people during the pandemic due to a provision that prevents participants from disenrolling while the COVID-19 public health emergency is in effect. .
Federal officials say about 15 million people will lose Medicaid coverage after the Biden administration lifts the public health emergency, nearly 3 million of whom will receive assistance in the Affordable Care Act exchange. I predicted that I would be eligible for insurance with money.
At least 1 million people who lost Medicaid coverage last year had Affordable Care Act health insurance, according to data through September. That sizable number “has not yet reached the pace hoped for,” and means many Americans are newly uninsured, Georgetown University health professor Edwin Park said this month. He writes:
Under the Biden administration, health insurance under the Affordable Care Act has become more affordable. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) includes a provision that expands the number of people eligible for Affordable Care Act health plan subsidies by approximately 20 percent, and the Inflation Control Act of 2022 The subsidy has been extended.
About 80% of shoppers in the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplace can get coverage for less than $10 a month, according to the White House.
Republicans argued that the program's subsidies were too generous.
“ARPA's main point is that if people didn't have to pay anything for an ACA plan, they would eventually enroll,” researchers at the Paragon Institute, a conservative health policy think tank, wrote. I mentioned it in last week's post. “This seems more like an indictment of the ACA than a victory.”
