Why Obamacare’s “20 Million” Number Is Fake

Submitted by Genevieve Wood via DailySignal.com,

Liberals are notorious for caring about “groups” of people, but when it gets down to individual persons, not so much. You’re about to see this play out in spades as Democrats cry crocodile tears over the coming repeal of Obamacare.

You hear it over and over again: “This will be catastrophic for the 20 million people who were previously uninsured but now have coverage! You can’t take away their health care!”

First of all, no one is talking about doing that. Any repeal legislation will have a transition period for those who got coverage through Obamacare to move to new plans. And second, they will have more choices and better options. Win. Win.

But liberals would rather focus on quantity, how many millions we’ve given something to, versus quality, what does that “gift” mean for individual people.

The Obama administration claims 20 million more Americans today have health care due to Obamacare. The reality is that when you look at the actual net gains over the past two years since the program was fully implemented, the number is 14 million, and of that, 11.8 million (84 percent) were people given the “gift” of Medicaid.

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And new research shows that even fewer people will be left without insurance after the repeal of Obamacare. Numbers are still being crunched, but between statistics released by the Congressional Budget Office and one of the infamous architects of Obamacare, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Jonathan Gruber, it’s estimated that anywhere from 2 to 7 million people now on Medicaid would have qualified for the program even without Obamacare.

That further discredits the administration’s claim of 20 million more Americans having health insurance because of Obamacare.

Multiple studies have also shown that even those who are uninsured often have better outcomes than those with Medicaid. A University of Virginia study found that for eight different surgical procedures, Medicaid patients were more likely to die than privately insured or uninsured patients. They were also more likely to suffer complications.

And it is important to note that this study focused on procedures done from 2003-2007, prior to the geniuses in Washington deciding it was a good idea to put even more people on the already overburdened Medicaid system.

Additionally, despite what proponents of the law promised, there is little evidence to show that the use of emergency rooms, which have a higher level of medical errors, has decreased due to Obamacare.

Then there is this reality: While Obamacare has handed out millions of new Medicaid cards, that does not mean the recipients now have quality health care. In fact, it doesn’t ensure they have health care at all. That’s because increasing numbers of doctors aren’t accepting Medicaid.

As a Louisiana woman told The New York Times, “My Medicaid card is useless for me right now. It’s a useless piece of plastic. I can’t find an orthopedic surgeon or a pain management doctor who will accept Medicaid.”

Keep that in mind every time liberal Democratic senators pull out the Kleenex boxes bemoaning the fact Republicans are the ones trying to take people’s health care away.

Speaking of which, a much underreported fact of Obamacare is how many truly needy and disabled Americans are NOT getting the services they need because of the expansion of Medicaid for able-bodied adults (aka healthy) of prime working age, 19-54.

So while the left talks about all the new people Obamacare is helping, it neglects to mention that over half a million disabled people, from those with developmental disabilities to traumatic brain injuries, are on waiting lists for care.

And many of them are on waiting lists because Obamacare gives states more money to enroll able-bodied adults than it does to take care of disabled children and adults who qualified for Medicaid prior to Obamacare.

If you think that doesn’t have a real-world perverse impact, note this. Since Arkansas expanded its Medicaid program under Obamacare, it’s rolls have grown by 25 percent. During that same time, 79 people on the Medicaid waiting list who suffered from developmental disabilities have died. I would encourage you to read my former Heritage Foundation colleague Chris Jacob’s full piece on this.

Finally, it’s not just those enrolled in Medicaid that are finding fewer health care provider options. For people who now have health plans through the Obamacare exchanges, new Heritage Foundation research shows that this year, in 70 percent of counties across the country, those consumers will have only one or two insurers to choose from.

Add to that the millions of people who lost the doctors and health plans they liked and are now paying higher premiums for less coverage, and you can see that quality health care and anything resembling “choice” has quickly disappeared for an increasing number of Americans due to Obamacare.

So the next time a defender of Obamacare tries to take the moral high ground about the millions of people the law has helped, ask them to define what “help” looks like.

 

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Dutchman
Dutchman

To my way of thinking – all that happened is the government used our tax dollars (and fines for people who didn’t buy insurance) to give other people a subsidy to buy insurance.

And since there wasn’t enough money, they raised the insurance premiums and raised the deductibles.

Nothing was created – just transfer payments. A Zero Sum game.

Annie
Annie

No, it was much worse than that Dutchman. You have to take into account the raises and bonuses that the CEOs of the insurance companies got – that had to come from somewhere.

Bell1

You’re right. It never was designed to be anything but a massive wealth transfer scheme (socialism), which takes all the money from those huge premiums people are paying to offset the cost of all those freebee Medicaid plans, many of which go to illegal “refugees” when they enter the country. Meanwhile, deductibles are so high that people will never meet them and end up paying cash for the full cost of their doctor visits and/or prescriptions. I recently read about a 63-year-old woman who was paying $894 per month with a $10,000 deductible. Why would anyone pay a massive monthly premium just for the “privilege” of then having to pay cash at the doctor’s office anyway? As we continue to provide more handouts and allow millions more Third World fake “refugees” into the country, premium costs and deductibles have nowhere to go but up. Eventually, there won’t be enough producers in the population to generate the money required to fund all those freebee plans, and the whole house of cards will collapse, but that was by design. Obamacare was never supposed to work. It’s the transitional phase to full-on socialized, government-run, single payer healthcare, which is what will be instituted as the “solution” once Obamacare implodes on schedule. Then, God help us.

Westcoaster
Westcoaster

No, this is more fascism than socialism. Government in league with private companies = fascism.

overthecliff
overthecliff

West, a distinction without a difference.

Anonymous
Anonymous

America has been looted.That is why it is so important for Trump to make an example of every single corrupt politician and BANKER .Have orange jumpsuits ready, and make them return $$$ plus interest. Start at the top .No more fake hearings

Anon
Anon

Yep. Bring out the handcuffs. No more “hearings” just appearances in court for arraignment.

WIP
WIP

Lies, more lies and statistics.

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