Obamacare is having a surprisingly good year

[applegrove]

By Sarah Kliff at Vox

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/26/18113313/obamacare-mandate-tax

"SNIP.....

Two years into the Trump administration, more health plans are signing up to sell coverage. Premiums for mid-level plans actually wentdown 1 percent. This is after years of double-digit increases, many under the Obama administration.

This all really surprises me. These positive changes are happening the same year that Obamacare’s individual mandate — the penalties for not carrying health coverage — is going away. They’re happening at the same time the Trump administration has rolled out policy changes that were expected to weaken the marketplaces, like letting consumers enroll in skimpier, cheaper plans that don’t comply with Obamacare rules.

I thought these changes would have scared insurers away from the marketplaces, or at least encouraged them to jack up their prices. But that just doesn’t seem to be happening.

I called up two of the experts I trust the most when it comes to understanding Obamacare marketplaces — Chris Sloan at Avalere Health and Larry Levitt at the Kaiser Family Foundation — to figure out what was going on.

....SNIP"

[Hortensis]

1. What great news. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised.

After all, insurers helped design the ACA so it would work for them. And most had already confirmed that participating could be beneficial to them -- if they could somehow make it work even in the face of ongoing attempts by Republicans to drive them out of the insurance marketplaces.

Of course our Democratic legislators also consulted experts from all other affected fields. It can't work for patients if it can't work for them. The ACA was also designed with input from pharmaceuticals, medical device manufacturers, labs and medical analytics, IT, hospitals, chronic care facilities, home care providers, and medical providers (docs, nurses, etcetera), and I'm sure more.

Thank you for posting this, Applegrove. Considering everything, it's still working fabulously, isn't it?

[applegrove]

2. Yes. It is a great thing. People really like it. Bet the GOP regrets trying to name it negatively

as Obamacare. It stuck. It is liked.

[Hortensis]

3. :) Calling it Obamacare worked well for them

for a long time, like all those people who when polled said they liked the ACA but opposed Obamacare.

Bet some, accepting the writing on the wall, wish they'd restyled it to be less comprehensive and stuck their own Trumpcare label on it, but there are still many who intend to eliminate all programs. This isn't over any more than they gave up attempts to repeal Social Security soon after passage.

They're stuck with Obamacare now, though.