The Affordable Care Act is six years old today, and President Obama is taking a well-deserved bow.
“After nearly a century of effort, and thanks to the thousands of people who fought so hard to pass and implement this law, we have at last succeeded in leaving our kids and grandkids a country where pre-existing conditions exclusions are a thing of the past, affordable options are within our reach, and health care is no longer a privilege, but a right,” Obama said in a statement Tuesday, one day ahead of the anniversary of the law’s signing.
Obama pointed in particular to the 20 million people that government economists estimate have gained healthcare coverage because of ObamaCare.
He also noted some of the lesser-known elements of the law the administration has been touting this week.
Obama pointed to an announcement from HHS that Medicare saved about $470 billion between 2009 and 2014, because of a slowdown in the growth of healthcare spending.
He didn't mention the 14.3 million private sector jobs that have been created since he took office in 2008, a darned good chunk of them since Obamacare was signed into law. He also didn't mention how much it’s projected to reduce the debt in the next five years. Meanwhile, there's some guy out there on Twitter who is having a really hard time dealing with the reality of 2016.
Obamacare is here to stay. All those provisions that have really helped people are increasingly popular. Running against it is only going to appeal to the dead-enders who are going to vote Republican this year. Meanwhile, the rest of the world has moved on.