President Obama provides insights into Obamacare 5 years in.
President Obama gave a speech at the South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC today. The audience included doctors, hospital administrators, politicians, patients, and others. The President touted the success of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) 5 years in.
“Just five years in the Affordable Care Act has already helped improve the quality of healthcare across the board,” President Obama said. “A lot of the attention has been rightly focused on people’s access to care. And that obviously was a huge motivator for us passing the Affordable Care Act, making sure that people who didn’t have health insurance had the security of health insurance. But what was also a central notion in the Affordable Care Act was that we had an inefficient system with a lot of waste that didn’t always deliver the kind of quality that was needed that also put healthcare providers in a box where they wanted to do better for their patients but financial incentives were skewed the other way. And so the work we’ve been able to do is already spurring the kinds of changes that we had hoped for. It has helped reduce hospital readmission rates dramatically. It’s a major reason why we’ve seen fifty thousand fewer preventable patient deaths in hospitals. … It is making healthcare coverage more affordable and more effective for all of us. In a lot of ways it’s working better than many of us, including me, anticipated.”
The President went on to give reasons why all American whether they got coverage on the exchanges or through their employers should care whether Obamacare remains in place. He reminded those that got insurance through their employers that absent Obamacare their rates would be much higher. He reminded all that they could not be charged more, denied coverage, or charged more for being a woman because of Obamacare. He said Obamacare ends discrimination against the sick.
He provided the verifiable fact that the rank of the uninsured has dropped by one third. He reminded Americans that children can remain on parents’ policies until they are 26. Moreover most people including young adults can find insurance at under $100 a month. He noted that because of Obamacare Medicare solvency has been extended by over 13 years. He also touted that seniors saved over one thousand dollars because of Obamacare.
The President then reminded Americans that none of the Republican negative claims about Obamacare has occurred. No death panels. No employment losses. In fact Obamacare unchained those who wanted to form their own businesses from their employers now that anyone can shop for affordable insurance on the exchanges.
The President pointed out that the new Republican budget that includes the repeal of Obamacare would double the rate of the uninsured and take away insurance from millions. He said that inasmuch as Republicans have been clamoring for the repeal of Obamacare, they have no alternative.
“In their defense there are two reasons why coming up with their own alternative has proven too be difficult,” President Obama said. “First it is because the Affordable Care Act pretty much was their plan before I adopted it, based on Conservative market based principles developed by the Heritage foundation. And supported by Republicans in Congress. And deployed by a guy named Mitt Romney in Massachusetts to great effect. If they want to take credit for this law they can. I am happy to share it. And second it’s because health reform is really hard.”
Enough said. Republicans must either jump on board or get out of the way lest they continue an angst that is detrimental to the health and well-being of the country.