The Affordable Care Act has survived 48 varied Republican attempts to cripple its functionality, six outright repeal attempts, a multi-million dollar campaign to turn Americans away from the new healthcare act and numerous efforts to bring the Federal government to its knees, and now the ACA exceeds 3,000,000 sign-ups.
Despite start up issues out of the blocks for the new healthcare act, it appears that enough Americans are signing up to make the program work, according to health benefits consultants.
“So far, however, health insurance companies have said the enrollment is trending younger and there have been few surprises that would require them to pull out of the program,” according to Bruce Jaspen who covers health care reform, pharmaceutical and device makers, economic issues, managed-care companies, doctor practices and other physician issues for the Chicago Tribune.
Helen Leis, partner at Oliver Wyman, a Health & Life Sciences practice said, “Six or seven million [sign-ups] is good uptake after less than six months. We expect to see about 22 million lives on the public exchanges by 2018.”
Republicans Agape As They Sit Down To Meal Of Green Eggs And Ham
As Blue States are successfully increasing Affordable Care Act sign-ups, some Red States are lagging behind especially those states that have potential presidential candidates residing in them.
There is no doubt that Republican controlled states will be able to continue to undermine the new healthcare system, placing political gain above the needs of their own citizens. But people don’t rely on politicians for their information and they talk to each other. So as people in a Red State that suffer without healthcare coverage find out that their Blue State friends are covered and going on with their lives, perhaps pressures will build to stop the endless efforts to scuttle the program and all Americans will be able to enjoy an affordable healthcare system.
Toward the end of January Congress, after long delays, passed a spending bill. The bill scurried through both the House and the Senate like someone had greased the skids. With no drama what so ever the $1.1 trillion funding bill does nothing to limit the funding of the Republicans favorite evil demon, the Affordable Care Act.
One of the things that heartens those who have fought for this new inclusive healthcare system is the fact that literally millions of Americans that have never had health care access before are now covered for the very first time. The Department of Health and Human Services indicates that around 6.3 million people have received approval to sign-up for Medicaid through their individual state agencies.
Republican opposition to the idea of a healthcare system based on a functioning system in Massachusetts, designed by a republican Governor Mitt Romney, is a bit puzzling. The New England style system was implemented rather smoothly, considering of course the fact that it did not have the Tea Party and a host of neoconservative Republicans trying to kill it at every opportunity.
The most important thing here is that the program has got life and is breathing on its own; a future of affordable healthcare for all Americans seems reachable.
