ACA Medicaid Expansion Cuts Medical Debt Nearly in Half

Vox.com: “Medicaid expansion doesn’t just provide more people health insurance — it appears to cut medical debt enormously, a new study has found. The Affordable Care Act offered states a huge infusion of federal money to expand Medicaid eligibility to low-income adults, and about 30 states took that deal right away in 2014. Since then, new medical debt in those states has fallen 44 percent, a dramatically bigger drop than was seen in the states that refused to expand the program over the same period. Those states showed only a 10 percent decline.”

ACA Repeal Would Take Insurance from 32 Million Americans

32 million

The CBO estimates that the GOP repeal-only health care bill would increase the number of people who are uninsured by 17 million in 2018, compared with the number under current law. That number would increase to 27 million in 2020, after the elimination of Medicaid expansion and the elimination of marketplace subsidies, and then to 32 million in 2026. In addition, average premiums in the nongroup market would increase by roughly 25% in 2018. The increase would reach about 50% in 2020, and premiums would about double by 2026.

Wrong, Donald, Obamacare Is Not Collapsing

graph-percent-of-us-population-with-health-insurance-20170228

In his speech to Congress, Donald lied about the the ACA:

Health insurance premiums on marketplaces created by the law did increase markedly this year in many parts of the country as insurers dealt with higher-than-expected medical claims from patients.

But most consumers are still able to get health plans for less than $100 a month on the marketplaces, thanks to insurance subsidies made available by Obamacare.

One-Third Don’t Realize ACA and Obamacare Are the Same

35%

Of Americans said either that they thought Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act were two different policies (17%) or didn’t know if they were the same or different (18%), according to a new Morning Consult survey. “This confusion was more pronounced among people 18 to 29 and those who earn less than $50,000 — two groups that could be significantly affected by repeal.”

Only 15 Percent of Physicians Support Complete Repeal of Obamacare

15%

A new survey from Penn shows what primary care physicians think of Obamacare: 15% support complete repeal (38% of Trump voters; 0% of Clinton voters).Other findings:
There is agreement among respondents that specific ACA provisions are important for U.S. health: 95% for covering preexisting conditions, 91% for tax credits for small businesses, 88% for family coverage through age 26, 73% for Medicaid expansion, 50% for the individual mandate.

Schumer: Democrats Blew It

Unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them… We took their mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem — health care reform.

— Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), asserting that Democrats made a mistake by passing President Obama’s health-care law in 2010 instead of focusing more directly on helping the middle class, Bloomberg reports.