In 2010, millions of people came together to win the landmark Affordable Care Act, which increased coverage to historic levels, stopped insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions and created new rules for coverage and affordability.
The Affordable Care Act currently provides coverage to over 35 million Americans, including 111,423 Iowans. Over the last decade, it has reduced the number of uninsured people in the United States to historically low rates, stopped insurance companies from discriminating against over 100 million people with pre-existing conditions and created new, fairer rules, for private insurance providers.
Thanks to the ACA, insurance companies can no longer charge women more for insurance than men, deny people coverage for basic services like mental health, addiction, or pediatric care or place arbitrary caps on care or coverage.
Good health and access to quality coverage are linchpins to economic security. These factors create the opportunity for families to thrive in our country and to eradicate the systemic economic, racial and gender inequities that help the richest people in the nation prosper while squashing opportunity and fairness for the rest of us.
President Biden and lawmakers in Congress have made tremendous strides in increasing access to healthcare–both by expanding coverage and by lowering the cost of services like prescription drugs in Medicare. These are fantastic steps that stand in contrast to Republican efforts, to repeal or water down coverage, cut Medicare and Medicaid, and loosen up regulations so that insurance corporations can offer more high-cost “junk” plans.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has survived dozens of political, legislative and legal attacks to now reach record enrollment and majority support from the public. Bigger tax credits over the last two years have reduced premiums for middle-class families saving them an average of $800 annually. The ACA has both expanded coverage and improved the quality of coverage for hundreds of millions of Americans.
However affordable premiums for insurance coverage are just the first step. Using the coverage when you are sick often proves more challenging. There is always more to do. It can only work if people can afford the premiums and the out-of-pocket costs. And both are rising. Deductibles, co-pays, and other out-of-pocket “cost-sharing” expenses may render coverage moot when patients can’t afford their share of the cost or when they have to shell out thousands before their insurance plan starts to pay for treatment.
While people with ACA premiums are getting more affordable coverage because of President Biden’s commitment to increased premium assistance, the overall cost of healthcare continues to rise. Health insurance companies made record profits during the pandemic because many fewer people used their healthcare plans, resulting in fewer claims to pay. But big profits continue as the pandemic has receded. In 2023, the seven big for-profit health insurers alone made more than $40 billion in profits on revenues in just the first six months of the year. Profits were up 8.1% compared to the year before. Given the soaring premiums in 2024, we can expect to see similar profits this year even as medical debt continues to soar and families struggle to afford the basics.
We can’t go back to the days when insurers could charge people with pre-existing conditions more, or even worse, deny them coverage. Today we are calling on our representatives to listen to their constituents. To stop sabotaging our health care. To stop playing party politics with our lives. It is way past time for those we elected to honor their commitment to us, to protect our health care.
We are not only counting on it; our lives depend on it.
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If those millions of people loose their ACA we all will pay with higher premiums for the uninsured. We cannot go backwards.
Had a plan for the border too, but the gutless, bootlicking Retardlicans obeyed orange Satan and voted it down.
Have you read HR2?
Yes and we have discussed this before. Biden has agreed to some of the MAGArats demands on the border in hopes that something will get done. But the MAGArats don’t want anything to get done as that will hurt their chances at a second trump presidency. So, they draw up a plan and when the President says “OK”, they renege on their promise and demand more. They don’t have any idea on how to work with differing viewpoints. It either has to be their way or they go home – which they have done quite a bit of in the past six months. I don’t think you are married but if you are, or were, you know that a successful marriage takes compromise. If one person is always dictating the rules, then the marriage will eventually fail. That analogy works well for the Republicans. That is also why so many are quitting.
But, but, but….the trump plan that he put in on Day One of his presidency was so much better. It was the best plan ever. Oh wait, that didn’t happen even on day two or three or day one thousand. But it would have been the best.
Like Joey’s plan was the best from day one….open the borders
He is trying to get something done but the freedom caucus is preventing anything from being done hoping to gain some more votes for their cult leader.
Your comment has nothing to do with health care. Get on topic. Quit deflecting.
Read HR2 for deflection
SMFH.