Obamacare Deprived Only 400,000 People Of Their Prior Insurance. 16 Million Got Insurance!

"Obamacare: Where's The Train Wreck?"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/01/wheres-train-wreck.html

"The Hard, Central Truth Of Contemporary Conservatism"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/obamacare-and-hard-central-fact-of.html

2009 Harvard Study: 45,000 Americans Die Annually For Lack of Health Insurance

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/harvard-study-45000-americans-die.html

Republican Ruled States That Refuse To Expand Medicaid Are Despicable

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-can-state-government-deprive.html

GOP's Anti Medicaid Expansion Body Count, By State

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/gops-anti-medicare-expansion-body-count.html

GOP Hopping On Medicaid Expansion Bandwagon

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/gop-hopping-on-medicaid-expansion.html

"Don't Buy The Hype. American Insurance Companies Think Obamacare Is Going To Be Fine"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/15/dont-believe-the-hype-health-insurers-think-obamacare-is-going-to-be-fine/

Canadian Healthcare: Not Perfect, Just Better. Lots Better

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/11/canadian-healthcare-not-perfect-just.html

Obamacare Led To Few Cancelled Policies After All

Though not everybody who liked their health plan could keep it as President Obama once famously said, there were still just a small percentage of Americans who had their policies cancelled last year despite some overhyped predictions.

Bruce Japsen

Forbes Magazine

About 2.2% of Americans who purchased coverage on their own, or 400,000 people, had individual policies cancelled, according a newanalysis from the nonpartisan Urban Institute. And just 0.3% of  Americans with coverage through their employer, or 500,000 people, had their health insurance policies cancelled in 2014, the Institute said. Authors of the issue brief, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said there was no evidence of a significant number of policy cancellations in either the self-insured or small group markets.

“Plan cancellations of policies that do not meet Affordable Care Act standards were kept to a minimum in 2014,” Kathy Hempstead, who directs coverage issues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said in a statement accompanying the report.

10 Essential Health Plan Benefits, 2013

1 of 10

Policies were generally cancelled because these plans didn’t comply with the Affordable Care Act’s requirements that health plans sold on government exchanges have ten essential health benefits. (See attached gallery)  Plans also had to comply with other consumer protections such as “prohibiting preexisting condition exclusions and premiums based on health status or sex.”

Though there were many reports that millions received cancellation notices, government policy changes blunted the impact of people actually having their policy cancelled. But numerous changes in government policy blunted the impact of cancellations.

Going forward Hempstead doesn’t see cancellations being a big issue.

“I would expect them to taper off slowly,” Hempstead said. “It suggests plan cancellations are much less of an issue now than they were in 2013. I think consumers were caught by surprise during the first wave of cancellations but insurers were basically expecting it.”

Insurance companies have said they have recouped a lot of the cancelled business or mitigated their losses. Most insurers such as Anthem (ANTM), Aetna, (AET) and UnitedHealth Group, (UNH) have expanded their health insurance offerings giving Americans who take to the exchanges more choices.

The market, though, could continue to shake out to the detriment of smaller carriers.

“Some carriers will succeed and others won’t,” Hempstead said. “The market doesn’t seem to favor small carriers.”

***

How could these people be so happy to have health insurance?

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the guy who wants President Obama to stop talking about the good stuff that has come with Obamacare has another "Shut up!!! Shut up!!!!" moment following Monday's announcement that the uninsured rate has dropped by 35 percent since the law was enacted, and 16.4 million people have gained insurance through the law. Nonsense, says Barrasso.

Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, said: "Millions of people have lost coverage they liked, and out-of-pocket costs continue to rise. Coverage does not equal care."

Moreover, he said, the addition of people to the Medicaid rolls is "hardly worth celebrating."

Actually, new data from the Urban Institute shows that not so many people actually lost coverage they liked. No, it wasn't millions, it was 400,000 or about 2.2 percent of Americans. That coverage that was "lost," by the way, really wasn't equal to care. The plans that were cancelled didn't include the ten essential health services required by the law (you know, frivolous things like chronic disease management and prescriptions and preventive care).

Millions didn't lose their coverage, but you won't be able to tell Barrasso or any other Republican that, just as you won't be able to convince them that, yes, Medicaid coverage is better than none at all. Because, for Republicans, it's an article of faith that it's just better for people to be uninsured than to be insured by this law that they irrationally hate.