Republicans have made multiple predictions of ways in which the Affordable Care Act would fail, and have been wrong on every one of them. They have claimed that no more people are insured now than before, that prices would skyrocket, that doctors would not accept people with Obamacare, and that so many people would seek medical care that there would be long waits due to shortages. (They don’t seem to realize that this totally contradicts their claim that Obama caused people to lose insurance and no new people are insured). A survey from the Commonwealth Fund adds to the other data debunking these claims.
The survey found that 9.5 million Americans obtained health insurance during the open enrollment period, with the uninsured falling 20 percent to 15 percent. This is similar to a new Gallup poll finding the uninsured at a new low at 13.4 percent.
The Commonwealth Survey also found that sixty percent of newly insured adults had used their new coverage to either see a doctor or fill a prescription. Among these, 62 percent said they could not have done so if not for the new coverage. While many insurance plans use restricted networks of physicians to control costs, which was also the case before the Affordable Care Act, 54 percent said that their plan included some of the doctors they wanted to see. Only 21 percent said they tried to find a primary care doctor. Of these 75 percent stated this was somewhat easy or very easy and 60 percent were able to get an appointment within two weeks.
Surveys such as these are not able to measure one important change. There are no longer any people being dropped from their medical plans due to developing medical problems, or people being denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions.
