Encumbered exchange

“WE HAVE to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy,” said Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House, of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Barack Obama’s health-care reform, in March 2010. More than six years later, that fog has yet to recede fully. Nearly half of Americans say they oppose the law, despite large majorities in favour of most of its contents when these are polled separately. Donald Trump calls the act an “incredible economic burden”, to be replaced, under his presidency, with “something much better”. And critics continue to insist that the ACA is heading towards an inevitable failure, a charge fuelled by recent headlines about soaring premiums and struggling insurers. Democrats, meanwhile, largely celebrate the law as a defining success of Mr Obama’s presidency. Who is right?

Under Obamacare, the percentage of Americans without health insurance has fallen from 16% in 2010 to 9% in 2015. The law achieved this in three ways. First, it expanded Medicaid, government-provided insurance for the poor, to cover all those with incomes of less than 138% of the federal poverty line. Only 31...Continue reading

Source: United States http://ift.tt/2crnYAL

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