For the Beneficiaries, Losing Obamacare Would Truly Suck

Froma Harrop on Apr 2, 2024

For the record, 45 million Americans now have health coverage under the ACA. Republican foes of Obamacare have dropped their previous insistence that it would be a job killer. Unemployment has been below 4% for the last 25 months, a job performance not seen since the 1960s.

And no, the cost of Obamacare is not out of control. On the contrary, it's credited with slowing health care inflation.

The tiniest of violins are being played for Republicans who voted in 2017 to ditch Obamacare and now worry that voters might not approve. One is Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican. "We most certainly can do a better job," Rounds recently wrote, "but it would require us to start proposing what the change would be now so that we wouldn't be in a position of repealing without having a better replacement."

As for Trump, if he wins a second term, he would not be running again (we assume). Thus, he could take away the health coverage for millions with nothing politically to lose. And if Rounds and his Republican colleagues lose reelection as a result, he would lose not a wink.

Happy 14th Anniversary, Obamacare. You have guaranteed 230 million Americans free preventive care. You capped out-of-pocket spending in the Marketplace plans. You have improved the quality of coverage offered. You have vastly expanded community health services. Most importantly, you have brought the percentage of Americans lacking health coverage to an all-time low.

May you and the Americans you have kept healthy and alive have many more years together. There's a lot at stake this November for your beneficiaries. Losing Obamacare would truly suck.

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Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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