Yeah, he’s back at it. Because we can’t have anything nice, even a quiet holiday week.
For the umpteenth time, from us and from every fact-checker in the land, no. Obamacare. Is. Not. Essentially. Repealed. In fact, it’s chugging along far better than anyone ever expected it would given the degree of sabotage it has been subject to from Trump and Republicans. The core of the stuff that people love—the subsidies that help about 80 percent of ACA enrollees are still there, the essential health benefits mandating what ALL insurance plans have to cover on and off the ACA marketplace, Medicaid expansion, and rules allowing adult children to stay on their parents’ plan until the age of 26—that’s all still there. Now that millions of people have had the chance to experience that over the last few years, the law is more popular than ever. And far more popular than any elected Republican.
In case you missed it, 8.8 million people enrolled in the shortened Obamacare enrollment period ending last Friday. That’s about 96 percent of the enrollment on the federal exchange last year. With eight states that run their own exchanges still running, some through the end of January, more are coming. Additionally, residents of the five states hit by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have until the end of this month to get signed up. Which means this enrollment could easily match, maybe even surpass, last year’s.
The sabotage isn’t over, but Obamacare is mostly definitely not dead yet.