Do you think we have fared better with Obamacare in place throughout this pandemic than we would without it?

Overall? I don’t know, but I know a few who definitely have fared better, in that they had coverage (thanks to the ACA) when they got Covid, that they previously didn’t have because they were dropped by providers before the ACA.

Logically, having more people able to get care (which the uninsured often don’t do) is a good thing, and benefits all, ultimately.

For many people, yes. Hasn’t helped me though. The lowest premiums were $800+.
The ACA was mainly several laws reforming insurance industry practices. That’s really good news for people who have insurance through work or the government.

This is the first year since the ACA started that I’ve felt I could sort of afford health insurance again, and that it would likely be of a benefit to me. (Sadly, I was wrong and got nailed by unexpected medical expenses during this period.)

But it has helped many more people who are less well-off than I am to get actual affordable health insurance, so i think it was a net good thing from that standpoint.

However, with the was US insurance companies have way too much influence on our lawmakers, I suspect they have managed to abuse the system even more than they were before the ACA started.

I certainly agree with that!

I doubt it had a lot of impact, but I’m just guessing. If I understand correctly a lot of the testing was free (either paid by insurance or the government). Vaccines were free. Most people needed tests or a vaccine.

650,000 of the 900,000 deaths were over age 65. They had Medicare. A lot of the hospitalizations were over 65 too.

A percentage of the severe illness was also covered by Medicaid or insurance through work.

I think even without ACA the government could have mandated certain things be covered.

Premiums for insurance through the ACA marketplace are a small fortune for most middle-middle or upper-middle class couples. I know a lot of people who opted out of getting insurance because premiums were so high. My husband wanted to opt out when we owned our own business, but I made him get insurance.

The ACA just gave more people the corrupt healthcare system we have in place for years.

I hope someone fixes it. The gouging in healthcare has to stop!

Depends on your definition of ‘better’.

If you’re a fiscal conservative, then you may well think that more Obamacare-supported people could have or should have died, because those were people getting subsidies from the government, and if they were dead, it would cost the government less.

Remember the discussion on “death panels” and the republican contention that democrats would decide who would live and die? If it were not for Obamacare, the economic conditions and poverty would have made that choice. And I think that some conservatives would have been fine with it.

Of course this would run counter to their so-called pro-life agenda—it’s OK for poor people to die from COVID, but it’s not OK for poor people to have the choice on whether they are prepared to give birth.

Bottom line, no matter what the answer to your question, the right wing conservatives would spin it in some idiotic way.

Pandemic didn’t effect us in the least, Obamacare made our health insurance premiums skyrocket to, ironically, almost unaffordable amounts.

@Chestnut health insurance premiums skyrocket because the GOP let people opt-out and fewer people were paying which meant the remainder had to pay more.

@Tropical_Willie It skyrocketed while Obama was still president. If you mean Obama had to compromise on letting people opt out and pay a penalty then I partially agree that was unfortunate, but the biggest problem I see is Obamacare did not do enough to control and cap the gouging, and the government just hands over the subsidies while insurance companies make huge profits.

Healthcare was already increasing and a scam in so many ways before Obama was president, during, and still continues today.

The three years my husband and I used ACA marketplace our monthly premium without the subsidy went from $750 a month, then the next year $950, then $1,200, and we had a $12,000 deductible. Any couple making household income over $75k AGI paid the full amount of premium (I rounded all the numbers).

Idealizing ACA means we will never get healthcare fixed.

Something has to be done about healthcare COSTS. That is the most important part of the equation. Having government pay ridiculous costs doesn’t help society overall, it hurts us. It helps those companies receiving the government payout, the executives getting big bonuses, and the stock holders. Doesn’t matter if government is paying the healthcare costs, companies, individuals, doesn’t matter who is paying, it is costing society too much in the US.

It was the GOP congress ! Lead by Moscow Mitch in the Senate (President is not a dictator unless he wears Tangerine make-up !)

@Tropical_Willie If everyone not getting insurance through employer, Medicaid, or Medicare paid into the system how much lower would the premiums be? Im asking, I don’t know the answer.

It still doesn’t change the profit in our system and that the US pays the most (a lot more) per person for healthcare compared to other countries. The gouging is immoral and unethical. You are still focusing on paying the cost, not lowering the cost.

Do you use the ACA? Have you ever used it?

The GOP didn’t want a “single payer ” system, too much money coming to them from insurance companies !

Too old to use ACA; Medicare and private insurance for me.

^^There was another jelly who used to tell me I didn’t know what I was talking about, told me Obamacare is not insurance it’s just a marketplace, like I didn’t know that already. That now more Americans have insurance because of ACA.

After a few years of lecturing me she found herself in a spot where she needed insurance. When she tried to do it through the ACA marketplace she found out how expensive it was. If I remember correctly she decided not to get any insurance. Yup. Not insured.

Both political parties haven’t done enough! If it’s single payer and the doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital systems are charging gouging prices and the single payer system pays those high fees it’s still the same problem.

If companies produce a drug for $10 for a month supply and charge $700, society is paying too much for that drug.

I have plenty to criticize the GOP about, but again, it’s the Democrats touting ACA like it’s some sort of panacea. We need to lower costs.

We need laws. Just like the law that was passed when covid started that companies could not gouge when selling PPE. There should not be any gouging in healthcare.

@Tropical Willie That is exactly why our legislators allowed the insurance companies to design the ACA. The whole scheme was cooked up to delay the inevitability of single payer Healthcare. The GOP then howled and feigned outrage and pointed the finger at Obama. It pays to have a base that ..never mind.

Some of you seem to be assuming that “covered by work, Medicare or Medicaid “ is some kind of absolute. It’s not. If you changed jobs because of downsizing, and maybe had a pre-existing condition, you often couldn’t be covered before Obamacare. Self-employed? Those policies got somewhat problematic. And it goes on. It didn’t become unaffordable until the Rebublicans put a concerted effort into destroying it.

After I had cancer, the insurance premiums increased exponentially, I finally had to drop my coverage. I wasn’t conveniently covered at work (as so many are not). My chances of recurrence were about 30%. Then the ACA came to be, and it was, indeed, affordable, compared to previous costs for pre-damaged Americans. It was later that it became so expensive and was still much less expensive than what it had been previously.

The system is broken, no one except those that support lining the pockets of the middlemen will dispute that, but being able to at least get some kind of coverage benefitted millions of people.

@canidmajor Absolutely, ACA helped people with pre-existing condition and also young adults could stay on their parents’ policy longer. Those two things are huge and important.

I’m just not so sure as a percentage of covid costs overall how much impact those things had. Young adults rarely needed hospitalization. Older adults were the most affected adversely by covid, and they are on Medicare.

I found this article that everyone might find interesting regarding insurance by age group and how ACA affected some of it: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/10/uninsured-rates-highest-for-young-adults-aged-19-to-34.html

@JLeslie You’re right, you don’t know. I imagine there would have been more deaths in the demographics you favor if those people had not had some coverage and maybe gotten some medical care that staved off serious disease or death. The tests were free, the treatments were not.
Offhand, I personally know two. Pretty sure their families think ”…we have fared better with Obamacare in place…”

@canidmajor I don’t doubt some people went for treatment who wouldn’t have without Obamacare, but even people with insurance often don’t go for treatment as soon as they should. I read recently 30 million people have insurance through ACA, but a big part of it is the Medicaid expansion. Not that Medicaid expansion doesn’t count.

As you point out maybe some young adults are insured when they would not have been, but they don’t get very sick usually.

I think for most employed middle aged adults they were covered by insurance before ACA, but sometimes had to wait 3–6 months if they switched jobs. That’s how it was for me in many jobs. My husband never waited more than a month.

You don’t know either how the stats really lay out. You’re going by a few people you know, I’m just writing it out as I’m thinking it through.

I had to pay for my antibody test because my doctors are idiots. Didn’t matter that I have insurance. It’s not like the insurance system works in some sort of perfect manner. My cardiologist had me pay for an echo because she thought maybe I had covid, and I told her my symptoms were a perfect flu, and then after I went along with her $150 echo I paid for the $120 antibody test to just stop anymore ridiculousness. I can’t tell you how often I do a test to show a doctor I’m right and they’re wrong so I’ll be taken seriously. Costs me plenty of money.

Who is paying for the covid treatment of the uninsured now?

@JLeslie I think you really don’t understand how cut and dried this is not. Enormous numbers of Americans have no insurance at all. Fortunately, Obamacare enabled a lot more to have coverage than did before. I think it meant that people ”…fared better with Obamacare in place…”, which is the exact wording of the question.
You seem to be determined to define “fared better” by some set of percentages and numbers that you yourself have set up.
Knock yourself out.
I personally believe that the situation would have been measurably worse without Obamacare.

@JLeslie Anyone who has had insurance since 2014, or has insurance now, “uses” the ACA. That includes Medicare and Medicade @Tropical_Willie.
The new laws didn’t change much with government insurance because of how it’s already structured.

_All (emphasis mine) new individual major medical health insurance policies sold to individuals and families faced new requirements.[21] The requirements took effect on January 1, 2014._ Source

@Dutchess_III I realize most insurance has to follow ACA rules. A lot of the insurance policy prior to ACA would have covered the costs associated with covid. It’s not like there was zero health coverage before ACA.

We already discussed some of the changes: adult children through age 26 on their parents’ policy, getting rid of preexisting conditions clause, and like I said, there were very few hospitalizations needed for people under age 26. Over 50% of deaths were people over 65, they are on Medicare. A large portion of hospitalizations are over 65 also.

Aren’t you the jelly who chose not to get insurance because it was too expensive through the ACA marketplace?

@JLeslie. Jesus. I didn’t “choose” to. decline insurance. I CAN’T AFFORD IT
Rick lost his job, and insurance, due to Covid. We’re both on SSI now. He qualifies for Medicare. I do not because my asshole red state refused to expand Medicade when it was offered at the beginning of the ACA implementation.
It was no less expensive pre ACA. I’m without insurance for the third time since 1993 due to inability to afford insurance. Nothing to do with ACA.

@Dutchess_III So we are agreeing on that. ACA did not help you. Too expensive.

You got me with the word “chose,” as in if I could have chosen to get insurance but “chose” not to
The ACA is not expensive. Insurance is.