Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Affordable Care Act
California cut its uninsured rate from about 16% to roughly 7% (2.8 million uninsured as compared to 7 million uninsured prior to passage and implementation of the ACA). Even in the face of consistent opposition from the Trump Administration, it has kept its enrollment numbers up, its premiums down, and has recently increased financial subsidies to make coverage and care more affordable through Covered California. Six million more Californians were able to get coverage through Covered California and through the MediCal (Medicaid) expansion. We do have something to celebrate even in the midst of this Covid 19 pandemic – maybe we should e-celebrate.
Expect enrollment in MediCal and Covered California to soar as people lose their jobs and coverage due to the Covid 19 layoffs and recession. Expect the costs of health coverage to go up in the coming year to reflect the numbers of seriously ill individuals needing care in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of local hospitals.
And please do remember that President Trump and many of his partisan colleagues are still seeking to invalidate it before the Supreme Court and to repeal it in Congress.
We need to build on its successes; we need to adopt the public option; we need to increase premium assistance and cost sharing reductions to make care and coverage more affordable; we need to bend the cost curve down just as we are trying to do with the infection curve of Covid 19.
We need to help convince our fellow citizens all over the nation to use their sacred rights to vote to end the careers of those who have sought in every way imaginable to stop expanded coverage for the American people.
We are at an inflection point in our nation’s long, difficult, century-long history of efforts to cover the uninsured. Let’s build on the momentum of this moment.
Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 3/23/20