The Biden administration says 20 million people have enrolled for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, with still a few days left for signing up
Some 20 million people have signed up for health insurance this year through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, a record-breaking figure.
President Joe Biden will likely proclaim those results regularly on the campaign trail for months to come as former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner, vows to dismantle the Obama-era program.
The Biden administration announced Wednesday morning that 20 million have enrolled for coverage on the marketplace, days before the open enrollment period is set to close on Jan. 16.
The latest enrollment projections mean a quarter more Americans have signed up for coverage this year compared to last — another record-breaking year when 16.3 million enrolled in the program. Signs-ups spiked after Biden took office, with Democrats rolling out a series of tax breaks that give millions of Americans access to low cost plans, some with zero-dollar premiums.
What are the distinctions between Obamacare and universal healthcare?
It’s a government hosted marketplace where traditional insurance companies offer subsidized plans
Versus a true government funded insurance plan where all taxpayers pay into a plan with minimum coverage, which can be supplemented by private or company funded traditional insurers
Universal healthcare simply describes the situation where essentially all people have access to affordable care.
The simplest model is to have basically all healthcare done and paid for by the government and funded by taxes. This is called single payer, with the National Health Service is Britain being the most famous example, but it’s not the only way to get universal coverage, though people who support single payer often conflate the terms. Other European counties have mixes of public and private coverage.
NHS is single-provider, where the government supplies the healthcare directly (e.g., doctors and nurses are NHS employees). Single payer usually refers to systems where the government pays for healthcare, but the healthcare can be supplied by a mix of providers including private sector providers, like in Canada.
But you’re right, single payer isn’t the same thing as universal healthcare. In practice, the US system with Obamacare can be regarded as a universal healthcare system. Switzerland, which has a similar public-private model, is generally regarded as having universal healthcare. The only subtlety is that the US system makes it pretty easy to opt out entirely, so some fraction of the population ends up not having healthcare access through some combination of bad luck and bad decision-making.
Ah you’re definitely right, my bad for over-simplifying a bit. Thanks for clarifying!
Obama copied a plan that had been created in Massachusetts by Republican Governor Mitt Romney. Obama figured that the GOP wouldn’t have a problem voting for a plan designed by one of their own. Instead, they went all out against the plan, because they knew that if it became a success Obama would be reelected. Obama called it a ‘starter house,’ meaning that once it was set up, it could be improved on.
There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.
True on software development. Even truer in politics.
Obamacare is still private health insurance, but with a discount coupon applied.
Universal Healthcare is healthcare for everyone.