3 Ways Obamacare Has Failed

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/05/3-ways-obamacare-has-failed.aspx


At the end of January, the third enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) wrapped up, to the delight of regulators.
According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Obamacare wound up enrolling about 12.7 million people, including 9.6 million from HealthCare.gov, the federally run marketplace exchange representing 38 states, and another 3.1 million enrollees from the one dozen states that operate their own marketplace exchanges. The Congressional Budget Office had only been projecting 10 million paying members by the end of 2016, so even accounting for some attrition to be expected during the course of the year, it appears that Obamacare will end the year ahead of CBO expectations in terms of total enrollment.
In some respects, Obamacare has been a success. Inclusive of the Medicaid expansion, which 31 states have chosen to participate in, around 26 million people now have health insurance who didn't as of mid-2013. This includes the aforementioned 12.7 million enrollees during the third open enrollment period, as well as 13.5 million Medicaid enrollees between mid-2013 and Oct. 2015. These individuals, many of whom had no affordable access to medical care three years ago, now have a means of obtaining medical care for a reasonable cost, or perhaps no cost at all. This access could be the key to a healthier society overall.