4 signs the ACA is working
The Affordable Care Act: Should it stay or should it go? Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of HealthCare.gov's launch, and the debate regarding the healthcare reform law's popularity and effectiveness continues.
This past July, the public opinion of the ACA was at an all-time low, with 53 percent of Americans holding unfavorable views.
Yet despite the ongoing technical glitches with HealthCare.gov and the public's opinion behaving like a seesaw, it's important to look not at the steps along the journey, but rather at the end result, suggests the New Republic.
So here's what's working, according to the article:
Premiums on the decline
Premiums aren't skyrocketing the way critics and industry experts predicted. Take for instance the second-lowest-cost silver plan in the marketplace--the premiums decreased by an average of -0.8 percent.
Insurer competition to increase
Overall insurer participation in the marketplaces is set to increase by 15 percent next year, based on the 44 states that provided information to the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the article.
Cost of healthcare rising slowly
Of course, the cost of healthcare will continue to rise, but not as dramatically or quickly as expected. This is perhaps due to the recession, notes the article, since now the "new normal" is lower inflation. Since implementation of the ACA, the healthcare industry as a whole is more efficient, according to the article. One cost-saving reason may stem from the decline of hospital readmissions.
More Americans now have health insurance
The main goal of the ACA was to provide health insurance to uninsured Americans. This summer, the uninsured rate fell to its lowest percentage--13.4, according to a Gallup poll, FierceHealthPayer previously reported. Yet while related government data may not be as consistent, all the findings suggest the same fact--the ACA is indeed working to provide more Americans with health coverage, notes the New Republic.
For more:
- read the New Republic article
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