What President Obama's SOTU Address Got Wrong about the Affordable Care Act—and What it Got Right

What President Obama's SOTU Address Got Wrong about the Affordable Care Act—and What it Got Right

The President overstated the Act's impact—here's how

Last night, in President Obama's State of the Union address, one of his main talking points was the Affordable Care Act and how much of an impact it's had on Americans' lives: "More than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage," he said. Technically, that's true. But it implies that more than 9 million people who previously didn't have coverage now do. And in reality, we can't know if that's the case. Here's why:

As of Dec. 28, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that nearly 2.2 million people had signed up for private health insurance through the Marketplace. (HHS said last week in a press release that this estimate has since increased to about 3 million people.) The Act has also resulted in about 3.1 million people younger than 26 gaining coverage through their parents' plans. Combining those two figures brings us to 6.1 million, but Obama included another stat in his number: The number of Americans who've signed up for Medicare coverage this year. HHS currently estimates that 3.9 million people have enrolled (which would bring the total to the 9 million-plus Obama quoted)—but HHS officials confirmed in a Jan. 13 press con ference that the 3.9 million number includes both people who were already on Medicaid who renewed, as well as people who qualified for the program for the first time and signed up as a result. 

In other words, because HHS is unable to give us the breakdown of how many of those people were on Medicaid prior to the Affordable Care Act, we can't say with certainty that Obamacare has provided coverage for more than 9 million people (similarly, we don't know at this time how many of the 3 million people who've signed up for private plans were previously uninsured).

That said, Obama did make some statements last night about the Affordable Care Act that we can get behind: 

And here's another number: zero. Because of this law, no American can ever again be dropped or denied coverage for a preexisting condition like asthma, back pain, or cancer. No woman can ever be charged more just because she's a woman.  And we did all this while adding years to Medicare's finances, keeping Medicare premiums flat, and lowering prescription costs for millions of seniors.

Clearly, there are still plenty of kinks to work out—but at least we're taking steps toward helping more people get the health coverage they need. 

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