Obamacare Is Not Perfect - But It Is Working

Have you noticed that the Republicans have not been talking as much recently about Obamacare -- and the need to repeal it? For quite a while now the GOP has been telling us that Obamacare won't work -- that it will not reduce the number of Americans without insurance and would hurt those Americans who had insurance. Those assertions have now been exposed as lies.

The truth is that most people have seen a drop in their insurance rates (and many have gotten a premium refund for the overcharge). In some states, like New York, the premiums have almost been cut in half. And as the chart above shows, there has been a significant reduction in the percentage of uninsured Americans -- a drop from the 3rd quarter of 2013 to the 2nd quarter of 2014 of about 4.6 points.

Now I do believe that while that drop is significant, it is not nearly enough. I expect the next sign-up period will lower it even more. But as long as Republican-controlled states refuse to recognize health care as a right of all Americans and expand Medicaid, there will remain millions of Americans without health insurance coverage. This is not the fault of Obamacare, but of Republicans refusing to implement it fully.

Obamacare is not perfect. It has not riven down medical costs enough, and even if fully implemented in all states it would leave some Americans without coverage. But it is working, and has been shown to be a huge improvement over what we had before its passage. It is far from the disaster the Republicans predicted, and any effort to repeal it now would be ludicrous.

The chart above is made from information provided in the Gallup Poll. The latest information was gathered between April 1st and June 30th of a random national sample of 45,125 adults, and has only a 1 point margin of error.