Statistics by themselves rarely astound anyone. Numbers and figures provided without the appropriate frame of reference can be meaningless, but taken in context can be stunning. Here are five Obamacare stats that will blow you away — when you understand their background.
Hillary Clinton wants you to know that she was doing health care before health care was cool.
“You know, before it was called Obamacare it was called Hillarycare,” Clinton said recently at a rally in Elko, Nev.
It’s a stock line these days in her stump speeches and debates.
Coverage disruptions due to complex paperwork requirements seem commonplace in the health law’s system of subsidized private insurance, which currently covers about 12.7 million people.
The government says about 470,000 people had coverage terminated through Sept. 30 last year because of unresolved documentation issues involving citizenship and immigration. During the same time, more than 1 million households had their financial assistance “adjusted” because of income discrepancies. Advocates say “adjusted” usually means the subsidies get eliminated.
The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on overturning President Obama’s veto of legislation to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood. The vote, appropriately scheduled for Groundhog Day, is expected to fail, leaving conservatives to gear up for a final year of budget fights with the president.
Aetna’s chairman and CEO said Monday that the country’s third-largest health insurer had “serious concerns” about the sustainability of Obamacare’s marketplaces.
“We continue to have serious concerns about the sustainability of the public exchanges,” Mark Bertolini said on an earnings call Monday, according to prepared remarks.
He said the company remained concerned about “the overall stability of the risk pool.”
