The Obama administration received a surprise victory last week, as the amount of people who signed up for health insurance through state marketplace exchanges exceeded expectations. Approximately 7.1 million people enrolled through state and federal exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare.
The final tally is the result of a surge during the last few days of the open enrollment period, which ended March 31. Meeting the expected target, let alone exceeding it, is impressive given the rocky start the administration had with the exchanges and the glitches on the website. The administration even revised its goal of 7 million enrollees to 6 million after the chaotic start, and the Congressional Budget Office predicted around 6 million people would sign up.
“There are still no death panels. Armageddon has not arrived. Instead, this law is helping millions of Americans, and in the coming years it will help millions more,” Obama said last week. However, many Republicans remain skeptical of the law, with Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) even suggesting that the administration was “cooking the books.”
According to The Washington Post, in a statement made after the president’s remarks, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) used the word “disastrous” to describe the effects the law is having. However, the fact that Americans appear to want cheaper insurance may be a positive sign.
“The fact that 7.1 million people signed up for the Affordable Care Act coverage clearly indicates that all those people think that having health insurance is important,” Grace Budrys, a sociology professor at DePaul, said. “The country is finally dealing with the fact that so many people are uninsured or under-insured.”
And while the numbers are positive for the administration, there are several hurdles still left to clear. For one, access for Medicaid-eligible citizens in certain parts of the country is limited based on many states denying federal funding to expand their programs.
“Those who reside in states that have not implemented the Medicaid portion of the ACA will continue to have no health care coverage,” Budrys said. “That is of course detrimental to their health. It also increases the amount of money the nation spends on health care because those people have no alternative but to go the emergency room.”
In addition, getting young and healthy people to sign up has been a challenge. While the administration believes that many who signed up at the last minute were young people, most numbers up to this point show that the vast majority of enrollees are older people, who are typically more expensive to insure.
“When young people are surveyed, they indicate that they do want health insurance, but that it costs more than they can afford,” Budrys said. “So the problem keeps coming back to the fact that health insurance costs too much.”
Freshman Mike Papanicholas supports the law and believes that it will make the country healthier.
“I think Obamacare is working quite well, and I think the biggest problem with a lot of people is they don’t do the right type of research when looking it up. I think when people actually look up the law, they can see that it isn’t some type of great socialist scheme in the hands of government,” he said. “It will better America by using both the free markets and government help.”
While many young people support the law, there is also some skepticism. Sofia Fernandez, a member of the DePaul College Republicans and Young Americans for Freedom, is against the law because of the potential effects it could have on job loss and on students.
“The law is so complicated and so complex, it is hard for students to actually understand what is going to happen,” Fernandez said. “In order for this law to work, enough young people have to sign up, yet many are burdened with student loan debt and don’t make enough money to afford it.”
With opinion still mixed, debate on the law’s merits will likely continue even as the law continues to be implemented. An example of this would be a Forbes estimate showing that only 14 percent of people who signed up for the exchanges were previously uninsured.
“There will be more estimates offered by a wide range of parties, beside this one which was produced by a business- oriented publication,” Budrys said. “The figure may end up being right, but it is too early to take it as fact.”
Too early to tell can probably describe many parts of the law.