Affordable Care Act weakened but still stable

Republican efforts to chip away at the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have had an impact, but for the most part the insurance marketplaces established by the law are stable, according to analysts.

A July 18, 2018 article in U.S. News & World Report outlined various Republican attempts to weaken the ACA, such as a recent Trump administration decision to temporarily halt so-called “risk-adjustment payments.” These payments require health care providers with fewer sick patients to transfer some funds to providers with higher numbers of such patients, with the goal of preventing providers from seeking out mostly healthier, less-costly patients. And last December, Congressional Republicans dropped the ACA’s centerpiece, the “individual mandate,” which requires most people to purchase insurance or pay a penalty.

In spite of these and other efforts, ACA signups decreased only slightly last year and every county in the U.S. currently has at least one insurance provider.

“If you compare where we are compared to say, 2016, we have started to backslide,” Benjamin Sommers, associate professor of health policy and economics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told U.S. News. “The law’s been weakened but it still survives. It still is making a huge difference for millions of people.”

Read the U.S. News & World Report story: Obamacare Finds Stability Under Siege

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Health insurance coverage trends during Trump Administration assessed (Harvard Chan School news)