Obamacare is closing the coverage gap between rich and poor, black and white

[RandySF]

Five years after the Affordable Care Act took effect, the health-insurance overhaul has narrowed coverage gaps between the rich and poor, according to new research.

The health-care law erased 44% of the coverage gap between many poor Americans without health insurance and the few rich Americans without it, according to a study the National Bureau of Economic Research distributed on Monday. The law’s provisions, especially its broadening of Medicaid programs, closed coverage gap between whites and minorities by 27%.

Coverage disparities shrank by 45% between married and non-married Americans and by 44% across age groups, according to U.S. Census Bureau data crunched by researchers at University of Kentucky, the University of Pennsylvania and Georgia State University.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), dubbed Obamacare, imposed health insurance market reforms, subsidized certain health plans and encouraged states to adopt broadened Medicaid programs for low-income residents beginning in 2014.

The law took effect after heated debate and a lawsuit that travelled all the way to the Supreme Court and ended with a 5-4 vote upholding the law. The researchers said their findings would be “extremely valuable” for the ongoing debate.

About 20 million people gained coverage in the wake the law and 37 states have adopted the expanded Medicaid program, said the Kaiser Family Foundation, an organization studying health care policy, which said Obamacare has achieved “historic gains.”



https://www.marketwatch.com/story/obamacare-is-closing-the-coverage-divide-between-rich-and-poor-black-and-white-2019-08-19

[jayschool2013]

1. Well, now

"That just won't do at all. No, siree." — Moscow Mitch

[emmaverybo]

2. Great! And we can continue to build on it, to improve it, to make it affordable for more people, to

add needed regulations, to legislate for all states to adopt the expanded Medicaid program. We can also get to quality universal coverage without re-inventing the wheel or destroying choice.

[gulliver]

3. "Coverage gap" is exactly the kind of metric Republicans need to kill Obamacare

Obamacare appears to be covering more people without costing other people much of anything. That's the metric we need. The idea of "closing the coverage gap" is a complete loser. You can "close the coverage gap" by taking health care away from people who have it. If no one were covered, there would be no gap. Yay!

Sorry. We need to be emphasizing the fact that the ACA is good for everyone and can be built on to be even better, for everyone. There doesn't need to be any talk of "gaps." That wins over no one. Everyone with health care thinks you might be taking something from them to close the "gap." It's bad rhetoric. It loses. For everyone.