Darn those silly ol’ health care experts who keep coming up with evidence that contradicts Republican politicians’ dire predictions about the Affordable Care Act.
The latest report comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation — hardly a group known for its radical left-wing ideology. It says the ACA is “stabilizing” in markets across the country. That it’s not “collapsing” as GOP politicians keep insisting.
Oh, yeah. These are the same GOP pols who want to toss out the ACA and replace it with an abomination that would toss 22 million Americans off the ranks of the insured over the next 10 years.
The foundation reports: “Early results from 2017 suggest the individual market is stabilizing and insurers in this market are regaining profitability,” the study finds. “Insurer financial results show no sign of a market collapse.”
So, which is it? Is the ACA in a death spiral or is it beginning to do the job that it was intended to do, which is provide health insurance to Americans who previously couldn’t afford to have it?
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is signaling an apparent willingness to work with Senate Democrats to repair what’s wrong with the ACA if the GOP cannot push its repeal legislation over the finish line. It doesn’t look too good for Republicans at the moment.
President Obama declared repeatedly his willingness to mend the ACA if Republicans could find ways to improve it. Current congressional Democratic leaders are saying much the same thing. So far, GOP leaders are having none of it.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has given ACA supporters a glimmer of hope that sanity might be restored to this debate. We’ll have to wait, though, for the GOP politicians’ response that will find ways to punch holes in the report from the folks who examine these issues for a living.
I’m going to stick with the medical experts on this one.