28 Aug The ACA (Obamacare)

As an insurance broker, I’m still asked almost daily what I think of President Obama’s HealthCare Reform (the ACA, Obamacare, whatever you choose to call it). And I’ll say the same thing now that I’ve been saying for over four years – there are both good and bad things about the law.

The thing that bothers me most about the whole thing is how dependent on our political party of choice everyone has become to form an impression. I still run into Democrats who think everything about it is wonderful and perfect (I call it the “Butterflies and unicorns” syndrome), and I still run into Republicans who think that western civilization as we know it will soon come to an end because of changes to the healthcare system. Neither is true, and the truth is (as usual, IMHO) somewhere in the middle ground. There’s both good and bad in the ACA. There are flashes of legislative brilliance, as well as the creation of a soul-destroying bureaucracy. Some have been hurt by rising prices, and others have had their premiums drop by 35% because of subsidies. Some folks lost access to their doctors when their carrier cut their network by 40%, while others who had a health issue were able to get access to insurance for the first time.

I don’t claim to be smart enough to know how to fix it, but I do know that it won’t get fixed until Republicans admit that there’s some good in there, and Democrats admit that it isn’t perfect.