Month: October 2016

Yesterday this CNN story showed up on my Twitter timeline. 

The headline, “Obamacare premiums are set to skyrocket on average 22%.

I’m sure many folks will just read the headline. I often do that as well. 

But I’m very interested in the progress and challenges of the Affordable Care Act (it’s not actually called Obamacare). So I kept reading. 

While the average will go up 22% in 2017, more than 85% of ACA enrollees received federal subsidies so the premiums will be less than 10% of their income. 

The CNN article coldly states that insurers are fleeing the exchanges because “insurers want to see younger and healthier consumers enroll.”

Let that comment sink in a moment. 

Now let’s go back to the time before the ACA was signed into law. At the time, we had 46 million Americans without healthcare — which included 8 million children (not mentioned in the CNN story)

Insurance companies, simply put, did not want to offer healthcare to the poor and sick. They still don’t. 

Now we have many Republicans saying we should repeal the ACA.

That leads us to a vital and critical question. 

Should we as a nation offer compassion and support to those that need it most?

The ACA is an attempt to do so and I’m so grateful that our President had the courage to make it happen. It’s also working. 

I’m sure there are many areas where the ACA can be improved and our future President seems to have some sensible ideas on how to do that. 

But the thing that gets me are cold stories covering the ACA and folks that want to repeal it without offering a compelling, clear alternative. 

Related:

My post, Taxing the Rich.

My post, My beef with the term fiscal conservative

Wikipedia, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act