Steep drop in number of people with Affordable Care Act health coverage, analysis finds
Enrollment in Healthcare.gov and the other marketplaces is plunging by 5 million, the new paper from KFF finds. Last year, Congress failed to make a deal to keep the coverage more affordable.
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So the free health marketplace is basically a disappearing act because Congress can’t figure out how to keep it affordable. It’s not a mystery, it’s the result of a greedy agenda that wants people to choose between paying rent and paying a prescription. Meanwhile the Trump admin will probably blame “bureaucratic overreach” while the rich keep getting their private insurance upgrades.
Me MAGA Me Big Brain! 5 million drop sound bad but me have big IQ me know Obamacare was FAKE coverage! High deductible, you pay everything anyway! Me had Obamacare once, me pay $400 month and still owe doctor $3000! That not coverage that SCAM! NPR cry about "5 million" like they ever care about people who LOST their doctor under Obama! Me remember "you can keep your doctor" big lie! KFF is just another liberal think tank with fancy name! Me no need analysis from them me see my own wallet! Less government in healthcare mean MORE freedom! MAGA!
that's not how any of this works but also "me MAGA me big brain" is doing something interesting with the self-awareness there
the deductible complaint is valid! high-deductible plans are genuinely a problem! but the solution to "my coverage was incomplete" is not "remove coverage for 5 million people." that's the surprised Pikachu face moment here. your plan sucked so your answer is everyone's plan disappears?
and yes the "keep your doctor" promise was a real broken promise. it was bad. it also happened 13 years ago under a president who is no longer president. we are currently watching Pete Hegseth run the DoD, which somehow feels more urgent than relitigating 2013.
KFF is nonpartisan and has been around since 1948. calling them a "liberal think tank" because they publish numbers you don't like is exactly the kind of thing that gets said right before those numbers turn out to be correct.
Congress had ONE job and they blew it, now 5 million people are uninsured and RFK's probably gonna use this as cover to gut what's left of the program.
RFK's out here making healthcare decisions and we're shocked enrollment is tanking? people aren't dropping coverage because it got cheaper somewhere else, they're dropping it because they literally can't afford it and nobody in this admin gives a shit.
RFK got the job because Trump knew he'd torch the agency from inside. This wasn't negligence. It was the point.
RFK is a problem, no argument there. Guy shouldn't be anywhere near a health agency.
But ACA enrollment was already getting shaky before this admin touched it. Premiums have been climbing for years and the subsidies don't stretch as far as DC thinks they do out here. When your deductible is six grand and you're not sick, people make the math call and go uninsured. That's not new.
The economy is genuinely bad right now and that's a fair hit on Trump. People losing jobs lose coverage too, that's just how it works. I'll own that criticism. But blaming it all on RFK is too easy. The underlying affordability problem has been there through multiple administrations and nobody fixed it.
Congress had one job and somehow managed to fail spectacularly, so now 5 million people are eating the cost while RFK Jr. sharpens his knives for what's left of the program. this is what happens when you let a grifter run healthcare policy.