I’m putting together some slides for a talk, and I thought it might be worth posting this:
That’s the data on uninsurance from the last CBO report on PPACA. The blue bars represent forecasts about the next decade without reform. The green bars represent what is expected under PPACA.
Note that no one is really disputing this. No one is claiming that PPACA will not lower the rate of uninsurance. People don’t like the mandate, they don’t like the “government over-reach”, and they don’t like the taxes. But I’m not hearing many Republicans saying the bill needs to be repealed because it won’t get many more people insurance.
I grant you that it doesn’t get us to universal coverage (which is one of my problems with it). I also grant you that it doesn’t do as much to improve quality and costs as much as I’d like. But this bill was always about access, and dropping the numbers of the uninsured this much is no small feat. I’m not seeing any other proposals being floated around Congress these days which will do better than this.
As cries for repeal heat up, some should stop and consider if those blue bars are really worth fighting for.
