Obamacare was a hot topic during the last presidential debate with the presidential candidates arguing for or against repealing the affordable care act (ACA). Each candidates’ comment on the ACA is stated below:
Clinton: “If we were to start all over again, we might come up with a different system. But we have an employer-based system. That’s where the vast majority of people get their health care. And the Affordable Care Act was meant to try to fill the gap … 20 million people now have health insurance. So, if we just rip it up and throw it away, what Donald’s not telling you is, we just turn it back to the insurance companies, the way it used to be.”
Trump: “Obamacare is a disaster. You know it, we all know it. … Their method of fixing it is to go back and ask Congress for more money. More and more money. … We have to repeal it and replace it with something absolutely much less expensive, and something that works.”
Argument Against Repealing Obamacare
As a result of passing the ACA, the uninsured rate has dropped in every congressional district in the country, and the uninsured rate is at the lowest it’s been since the Great Recession according to the US Census Bureau.
To be specific: “The uninsured rate for non-elderly Americans has fallen from about 16.6% in 2013 to 10% in the first quarter of 2016, and 8.6% taking into account seniors who have near-universal coverage.”
As Secretary Clinton noted during the debate, the law made it illegal for health insurance companies to exclude people based on their health status and allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ plans. It also expanded Medicaid eligibility to people with incomes below 138 percent of the federal poverty line (though 19 states have chosen not to).
I would have to agree with Secretary Clinton, it is better to fix Obamacare than to repeal it. To repeal Obama Care will be to waste years of progress and to start over, what is the guarantee of a positive outcome.
