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Essay On Obamacare

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For the nth time, the Trump administration lost again to his predecessor in his attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The battle was no longer in Congress but at the HealthCare.gov website where over 8.8 million Americans signed up for ACA health plans for 2018.

The high turnout was unexpected, almost matching the 2017 level even if the enrollment period was reduced by 50 percent. In addition, there were also other moves by the Trump administration to undermine the insurance marketplaces of Obamacare.

All-time high for new sign-ups

A report on Thursday said that the number of new consumers who signed up in one week reached an all-time record high of 1 million in the final days before the December 15 federal deadline. The total …show more content…

Only 39 states

The 8.8 million numbers exclude the people who signed up in states that have their own insurance marketplaces under the law or in the other states in the federal exchange where the enrollment seasons were extended until late December. These are the areas that were affected by the hurricanes and other major fall storms.

But every year, there are some people who sign up for health coverage or are automatically renewed, but they do not have coverage because they do not pay the monthly premiums.

The numbers of people who signed up is an indicator that Americans demand and back quality, affordable health insurance and consumer protections that Obamacare offers, Robert Restuccia, the executive director of Community Catalyst, a large grassroots healthcare advocacy group, said.

Rep. Frank Pallione Jr., a Democratic congressman representing New Jersey and a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the high numbers is a remarkable result given the Trump administration’s efforts to sabotage enrollment by cutting outreach, creating chaos and confusion, slashing the subsidies for low-income families, and shortening the enrollment period.

Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said the 8.8 million signup is a healthy number. She said that the high demand shows that people shopping on the exchange – mostly subsidized buyers – were not deterred by the shorter window and political uncertainty of

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