No, I want to talk about how laughably wrong the predictions of you and your ilk have been.
Rightwing prediction: The CBO is underestimating the costs of the coverage expansion. Covering people will be more expensive than we were told it would.
Reality: The CBO
overestimated the costs of the coverage expansion. Covering people has been less expensive than we were told it would.
Rightwing prediction: Exchange premiums could be seeing triple digit increases this year!
Reality: The average premium increase is somewhere between
2.9 and 5.9%, well below pre-ACA trends. Many rating areas are seeing outright decreases.
Rightwing prediction: Health care costs will soar!
Reality: Health care cost growth has reached and stayed at
historic lows. Projections of future spending on health economy-wide are
now lower than they were before the ACA passed. Total federal health spending obligations
are now lower than they were
before the ACA started subsidizing new coverage.
Rightwing prediction: The Medicare savings can't be achieved, it's just a trick.
Reality: Medicare spending growth has slowed even more than required by the ACA, making the savings far larger than estimated; per capita Medicare cost growth is
now falling.
Rightwing prediction: The ACA will explode the deficit!
Reality: The deficit has shrunk
below the average for the last four decades.
Rightwing prediction: The website will never work! No one is paying premiums!
Reality: The website works. The net attrition rate has been
less than 9%.
Rightwing prediction: Employers will drop coverage.
Reality: They didn't.
Rightwing prediction: Employer premiums will soar!
Reality: Premium growth in employer-based plans hit a
two decade low this year.
Rightwing prediction: There will be no net decrease in the uninsured! The uninsurance rate may even be going up!
Reality: The ranks of the uninsured
fell by about 10 million in the first year alone. In other words, about a
quarter of the formerly uninsured gained coverage.
Rightwing prediction: The ACA will result in less choice and competition.
Reality: Dozens and dozens of new sellers
are entering the exchanges next year and hundreds and hundreds of new plan offerings will be available.
Rightwing prediction: Obamacare will destroy the quality of care!
R
eality: Hospitals are
getting safer under Obamacare. Health care providers are
improving on quality metric after quality metric. Quality scores for Medicare Advantage plans
have improved significantly.
I'm sure there are hundreds more, these are just the ones that spring to mind immediately.