http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/obama’s-health-care-boasts/ar-BBkXV7n
President Barack Obama made misleading and exaggerated claims in a speech boasting of the accomplishments of the Affordable Care Act.
President Barack Obama made misleading and exaggerated claims in a speech boasting of the accomplishments of the Affordable Care Act.
- Obama claimed that those who already had insurance before the law was passed “got a better deal now” than they did before, because of insurance coverage protections and requirements in the law. But those added benefits came at a higher cost for some. Better coverage didn’t mean a “better deal” for everyone.
- The Web page promoting the speech claims that “129 million people who could have otherwise been denied or faced discrimination now have access to coverage.” But most of those individuals already had “access to coverage” — they got it through their employers before the ACA’s marketplaces were launched.
- Obama said the rate of the uninsured is at “its lowest level ever.” That’s unclear. His Council of Economic Advisers analyzed National Health Interview Survey data, which show the uninsured rate for the first nine months of 2014 (the most recent data available) was slightly higher than a few years several decades ago.
- The president said family premiums are “$1,800 lower today” on average than they would have been if premium trends that existed before the ACA had continued. It’s true premiums have increased more slowly in recent years than they did before the ACA, but even the president’s own economic advisers say the law isn’t responsible for the entire slowdown.
