From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:
The Republicans, and their current presidential candidate (Donald Trump), continue to claim that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has been a failure. As the chart above shows, that claim is ludicrous.
Before Obamacare went into effect in 2014, about 17.3% of all Americans had no health insurance — and many more had insurance plans that were grossly inadequate. Now all insurance plans must have a level of coverage that protects the insured, and the number of uninsured Americans has dropped to 10.8% in 2016. That means about 20 million Americans have insurance now over the number who had it in 2013. Those 20 million now have access to life-saving preventive care.
Obviously, Obamacare has been a big success. However, that does not mean it is perfect.
Who is surprised that subsidizing health insurance and punishing people for not purchasing it have lowered the rate of uninsured? Most people who think that it’s a failure aren’t considering (or at least aren’t solely considering) the rate of uninsured, but instead pointing out high and rising premiums and deductibles, insurers abandoning the market, the number of young people still not buying insurance, etc. A drop from 17.3% to 10.8% is great, but whether or not it excuses some of the other results is a fair question, especially since the rate wasn’t even halved.