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The Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) addressed a major need in our society. Prior to its passage, 47 million Americans had no health insurance and millions more were financially burdened by limited coverage.
In addition to expanding health coverage, the ACA has protected Americans from losing coverage because of a pre-existing condition, among other protections, and saved seniors billions of dollars on their prescription drugs.
HERE ARE THE FACTS
Americans DON’T WANT to repeal the ACA
- The majority of Americans did NOT vote to repeal ACA.
- The majority of Americans want to KEEP the ACA or at least portions of the law.
The ACA has made America HEALTHIER
- Overall, 20 million previously uninsured Americans have gained health insurance coverage since enactment of the Affordable Care Act. These 20 million have gained coverage both through the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and through the ACA Marketplaces
- Due to the ACA, the uninsured rate is now the lowest on record – 8.6 percent. Under the ACA, the uninsured rate has been slashed almost in half – from 16.3 percent in 2010 to 8.6 percent today.
- The ACA has led to a stronger Medicare. Since the enactment of the ACA, the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund has been extended by 11 years.
REPEAL WITHOUT REPLACEMENT would jeopardize America’s health
- Repealing the law would remove significant and highly popular consumer protections: (1) Elimination of lifetime limits on coverage; (2) Nondiscrimination for pre-existing conditions; (3) Young adults would be removed from parental coverage at 19 rather than 26; (4) Preventative care no longer covered at no cost; (5) Women could be charged more based on gender.
- An estimated 30 million Americans would lose coverage in 2019 if the ACA is repealed without replacement: 82% would be working families; 56% non-Hispanic whites; and, more than half of the adults with a high school education or less.
- Repeal of Medicaid expansion would eliminate coverage for approximately 1.6 million newly insured Americans with substance use disorder.
- Repeal would result in reinstatement of the“donut hole” in prescription drug coverage, forcing more out of pocket spending for millions of seniors.
REPEAL WITHOUT REPLACEMENT would damage our economy
- Repeal would add $350 billion to the deficit.
- Repealing ACA would increase Medicare spending by $802 billion over 10 years – affecting 57 million seniors and the disabled.
The ACA HAS EASED THE BURDEN of the cost of health care
- Employer-based health care premium costs have grown at a slower rate than pre-ACA.
- The average premium is $3,600 lower than if pre-ACA growth had remained.
- Medicare participant costs are 15% lower than what they were projected to be before the ACA.
- The average premium and cost-sharing for seniors is $700 lower than it would have been under pre-ACA projections.
- Nearly 12 million seniors have saved more than $26.8 billion on their prescription drug costs since 2010 – an average savings of more than $2,000 per senior.