The news surrounding the Affordable Care Act has been so good this week, it’s almost hard to know where to start.
We could start with the fact that private insurers who skipped the exchanges now want in …
One of the many, many, many predictions of Obamacare failure made by conservatives is that insurance companies would systematically drop out of the exchanges. They made this prediction many, many, many, many, many times. The data is starting to come in and, guess what, insurance companies are joining the exchanges. Dan Diamond reports that, in every state that has reported information so far, the number of insurance companies competing in the exchanges will expand in year two.
… or we could go with the fact, as expected, consumers are paying their premiums …
I’m quite confident that at least 90% of the original 8.02 million exchange QHP enrollees have paid their first premiums (and I’m guessing up to 80% of the 300K+ who’ve enrolled since then).
… or we could talk about “Obamacare” cutting the rate of uninsured in New Jersey by 38%, Minnesota by 40%, and Kentucky by 50%.*
By why stop there?
Medicare growth rates are also encouraging …
The latest data, as broken down by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, shows underlying Medicare growth, even after adjusting for temporary policies, is growing at just 2.5 percent. That’s more than a full percentage point below economic and beneficiary growth. Medicare, in other words, is growing slower as a percent of the economy and on a per-person basis.A percentage point might not seem like a huge deal. But if the trend holds, it could translate to billions of dollars in savings for the federal government.
… as are the latest polls.
When faced with the niggling problem that polls show a majority of Americans oppose repealing Obamacare, some of the law’s foes like to claim those polls are problematic because they offer a choice between “fixing” and “repealing” the law. This, they say, biases responses in favor of “fix,” because people like fixing things, and at any rate, Obamacare can’t be fixed by definition.So this new Bloomberg News poll will pose an additional problem to those who simply refuse to accept the reality that, while disapproval of the law remains high, the American people still want to stick with it.
In all, a little less than a third of the country supports repealing the Affordable Care Act — the position Republicans have spent years touting as smart policy and politics.
Looking at all of the good ACA news last week, Simon Maloy said, “We’re only six days into June, and opponents of the ACA have already had a terrible month.”
For the health care opponents on the right, June looks even worse this week.
In some corners, there are still dead-enders convinced that the entire American health care system is on the brink of an Obama-imposed collapse. Of course, in those corners, ACORN is rigging elections, the deficit is getting larger, and the war in Iraq was a good idea.
* Correction: I’d originally included data from California, which turns out to be incomplete. I’ve removed it from the above report. Thanks to the estimable Charles Gaba for letting me know.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."