Former President Barack Obama returned to the White House to celebrate the 12th anniversary of his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare, on April 5.
“When President Biden said he was not just going to celebrate the ACA but also announce actions that would make it even better, I had to show up,” said Obama.
Normally the 10th anniversary is a time for celebration, but Donald Trump was in office at the time. In 2017, when Republicans held both chambers of Congress, an effort to “repeal and replace” the ACA failed.
Obama acknowledged the ACA’s foibles, noting the sign-up website was plagued with glitches early on and more—but not all—eligible people have signed up for Obamacare.
“In some cases, health care subsidies aren’t where we want them to be, which means that some working families are still having trouble paying for their coverage,” said Obama.
That is a significant blind spot, says Health Care News Co-Publisher John C. Goodman, president of the Goodman Institute. “People have discovered that Obamacare is like Medicaid, only with higher premiums,” said Goodman. “The only way the government can get people to sign on is to bribe them with overly generous subsidies.”
Health Care News will present more extensive coverage of Obamacare’s shortcomings in the next edition.
–Staff reports