Walker and other Republicans were given another opportunity to voice opposition to the ACA in June when the U.S. Scott Walker, who announced his candidacy earlier this month, most recently called the ACA “destructive and costly” because “workers have lost hours because of new costs faced by their employers, people have lost their insurance and cannot afford the dramatic premium and fee increases.” “By its very design, it’s intractably complicated.”Īs expected, opposing the ACA is a common strategy for Republican presidential candidates, some promising to repeal the law should they be elected. “Politically, it’s going to continue to be an issue,” he said. The ACA, which has survived many legislative and legal challenges, will continue to be a target in the future, Haislmaier said. “When you have a survey, people sometimes don’t understand what’s being asked,” he told Healthline. “For instance, the economic recovery may have also influenced the study outcomes, though the analysis did adjust for several potential confounders including income, individual employment, and state unemployment rates,” they wrote.Įdmund Haislmaier, a senior research fellow for health policy with The Heritage Foundation, a far-right think tank, said while the numbers follow real market data, people shouldn’t put much credence in the findings, as the results are often unreliable.

The authors did note that they don’t know for sure how much of the changes are due to the new healthcare law. Read More: Do Doctors Really Loathe Obamacare? » “As states continue to debate whether to expand Medicaid under the ACA, these results add to the growing body of research indicating that such expansions are associated with significant benefits for low-income populations,” the study authors wrote. Researchers say the Medicaid expansion portion of the ACA contributed to reducing the rates of the uninsured, lack of a personal doctor, and difficulty accessing medicine among low-income adults. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2012, 29 percent of all Hispanics in the United States lacked health insurance, according to the U.S. The largest improvement in insurance coverage appears to be among minorities, causing researchers to believe the long-standing disparities in access to healthcare are closing.Īfter the ACA was implemented, Latino adults saw the largest decrease in uninsured individuals at almost 12 percentage points. The largest decrease, 5.5 percentage points, were people reporting they were unable to afford care. Those who reported not having a personal doctor decreased by 3.5 percentage points, easy access to medicine increased 2.4 points, and those reporting either fair or poor health decreased 3.4 points. Read More: When It Comes to Obamacare, Haters Should Shake It Off » Department of Health and Human Services wrote in their study. Chan School of Public Health and the U.S. “These results might reflect changes in the management of chronic conditions, peace of mind from gaining insurance, or factors unrelated to the ACA,” researchers with the Harvard T.H. In addition, people with chronic medical conditions reported overall improvements in health and functioning, a potential benefit from expanded health insurance and policy changes, researchers say. Now it’s being used literally by some researchers who say the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a success on several fronts.Ī study released Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association says that after two open enrollment sessions more than half a million adults report “significant” improvements in affordable health insurance, access to doctors and medications, and overall personal health. It’s a clichéd statement across the country, one that was even lampooned by President Barack Obama himself when rallying Americans to sign up for health insurance.

Obamacare success story