How Affordable Is The Affordable Care Act?

We all need healthcare. Hopefully not too often, of course, but we’ve gotta have it or there could be serious consequences. So, it’s extremely important for us to have access to the care we need but prices can really put a damper on healthcare decisions. Everyone’s heard of the Affordable Care Act (you might know it as “Obamacare”) and how politicians said it was intended to help make things more, well, affordable. Buuuuuuuuut a recent survey of 6,000 US adults aged 19-64 shows us how that’s not exactly working out according to plan.

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Here are Five Fast Facts on the affordability of healthcare:

1. 🤝 The Biggest Promises - The whole point was to provide better care at lower costs. And unless you were living under a rock about ten years ago, you must have heard “if you like your plan, you can keep it” a million times. Politifact later called this promise the “lie of the year.” So it’s not going well.

2. 😣 Working For The Man - Forty-three percent of people with health plans through their employer complained about the cost of those plans. Folks on Medicaid and Medicare were a bit higher at 45% and 51% saying they could afford their plans. But can you really call it a win when “only” a little less than half are unhappy?!

3. 😡 Flying Solo - People with individual health plans – like those obtained through Obamacare’s marketplace – were much more likely to complain (57%) and said paying for their healthcare was a challenge. 

4. ⏳ Just Wait - Almost 40% of people with individual plans through Obamacare actually put off getting the care they needed because of the cost. That seems like a very bad idea…

5. 💸 Going Into Debt - Regardless of the plan, roughly a third of almost all those surveyed reported going into debt even though they had coverage! The only exception was people with plans through Medicare, which was only 21%. And Paychecks everywhere wept.

🔥Bottom line: It’s hard to deny these ugly numbers. While the intention of the Affordable Care Act was certainly noble, the reality a decade later is that it has been anything but affordable! Given today’s inflation and the general expense of living life, this seems likely to only get worse, which means our Paychecks are more crunched than ever. Hopefully our elected lawmakers will do some cleanup effort on this very important aspect of American life!

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What has been your experience with healthcare costs?

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