5 ms·

By what metric have things gotten better since the ACA?

by enriquec 5y ago

ceejayoz 5y ago
One very clear one: Access to insurance for folks with expensive preexisting conditions.
rakmos 5y ago
Well for one, my son could be labelled as having a pre-existing condition as a result of the premature birth.
swashboon 5y ago
availability, coverage, cost
- dexterdog 5y ago
  Um, not cost.
  - only_as_i_fall 5y ago
    Depends on who you ask. Before Obamacare if your employer didn't pick a great insurance plan and you got seriously sick the insurance could cut you off after you hit a lifetime maximum and then future policies wouldn't cover that specific condition because it was considered pre-existing. This happened to my parents in the 90s and we went through multiple lifetime maximums and had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of 10 years. Obamacare is great for making health insurance actually act like insurance.
  - spaetzleesser 5y ago
    Yeah, they forgot the cost part. It probably didn’t help that the republicans did whatever they could do to kill ACA instead of trying to improve it.
  - aksss 5y ago
    People on individual market with no subsidies (making over, say $50k) got absolutely raped by the ACA. It's great that many uninsured got insurance, but many people like myself spent years uninsured post-ACA because the cost was higher than a mortgage payment with absolutely zero realized benefit until the massively high deductible was met. People who couldn't afford this were then charged thousands by the IRS as a penalty with zero benefit. I find myself not a fan of it from a policy perspective. Didn't like the way it was passed, written, or implemented. Some good effects, but truly bad effects as well. Scrapping the mandate was beneficial for people in my position (starting businesses), but still the healthcare system in the US is a train wreck. It's neither a free market system nor a public system. It is fundamentally broken unless you are an employee of a larger corporation that offers benefits.
wilde 5y ago
Medical bankruptcies. https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/04/30/affordable-care-act-lived-promise-buffering-bankruptcy-risk-study-shows https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/04/30/affordable-care-ac...
- zikduruqe 5y ago
  I filed for bankruptcy about 10 years ago due to a family member's medical bills. Funny, a year afterwards, when establishing credit again, all the financial institutions were like "yep, no problem, it happens". 24 months later, credit was back to normal-ish, bought new car, financed new home, and no medical debt.
hermannj314 5y ago
I believe ACA was originally meant to be even stronger, with a universal option and that was opposed. I agree with you that we should revisit and strengthen ACA and add that component back in.
enragedcacti 5y ago
Here are a number of metrics that have improved since the ACA. - percent uninsured decreased - number of people skipping treatment for cost reasons decreased - number of people with "pre-existing conditions" covered increased - satisfaction with coverage increased - growth of healthcare costs slowed Not to mention other provisions that are broadly popular such as children being allowed to stay on their parents health insurance through the age of 26 and mandates that require all plans to cover basic services. https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/chart-book-accomplishments-of-affordable-care-act https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/chart-book-accomplishme...

By what metric have things gotten better since the ACA?

ceejayoz 5y ago

One very clear one: Access to insurance for folks with expensive preexisting conditions.

rakmos 5y ago

Well for one, my son could be labelled as having a pre-existing condition as a result of the premature birth.

swashboon 5y ago

availability, coverage, cost

dexterdog 5y ago
Um, not cost.
- only_as_i_fall 5y ago
  Depends on who you ask. Before Obamacare if your employer didn't pick a great insurance plan and you got seriously sick the insurance could cut you off after you hit a lifetime maximum and then future policies wouldn't cover that specific condition because it was considered pre-existing. This happened to my parents in the 90s and we went through multiple lifetime maximums and had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of 10 years. Obamacare is great for making health insurance actually act like insurance.
- spaetzleesser 5y ago
  Yeah, they forgot the cost part. It probably didn’t help that the republicans did whatever they could do to kill ACA instead of trying to improve it.
- aksss 5y ago
  People on individual market with no subsidies (making over, say $50k) got absolutely raped by the ACA. It's great that many uninsured got insurance, but many people like myself spent years uninsured post-ACA because the cost was higher than a mortgage payment with absolutely zero realized benefit until the massively high deductible was met. People who couldn't afford this were then charged thousands by the IRS as a penalty with zero benefit. I find myself not a fan of it from a policy perspective. Didn't like the way it was passed, written, or implemented. Some good effects, but truly bad effects as well. Scrapping the mandate was beneficial for people in my position (starting businesses), but still the healthcare system in the US is a train wreck. It's neither a free market system nor a public system. It is fundamentally broken unless you are an employee of a larger corporation that offers benefits.

wilde 5y ago

Medical bankruptcies. https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/04/30/affordable-care-act-lived-promise-buffering-bankruptcy-risk-study-shows https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/04/30/affordable-care-ac...

zikduruqe 5y ago
I filed for bankruptcy about 10 years ago due to a family member's medical bills. Funny, a year afterwards, when establishing credit again, all the financial institutions were like "yep, no problem, it happens". 24 months later, credit was back to normal-ish, bought new car, financed new home, and no medical debt.

hermannj314 5y ago

I believe ACA was originally meant to be even stronger, with a universal option and that was opposed. I agree with you that we should revisit and strengthen ACA and add that component back in.

enragedcacti 5y ago

Here are a number of metrics that have improved since the ACA. - percent uninsured decreased - number of people skipping treatment for cost reasons decreased - number of people with "pre-existing conditions" covered increased - satisfaction with coverage increased - growth of healthcare costs slowed Not to mention other provisions that are broadly popular such as children being allowed to stay on their parents health insurance through the age of 26 and mandates that require all plans to cover basic services. https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/chart-book-accomplishments-of-affordable-care-act https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/chart-book-accomplishme...