The facts about the PPACA were pretty straight forward. I still don’t understand exactly how it works though. And some of the data may be slightly convincing that Obamacare is doing what it’s supposed but I’m not entirely sure I believe all of it.
For example, the first chart shows declines in the number of uninsured adults. I feel as though much of that decline easily could be just young adults staying on their parents insurance until their 26, not solely because of being legally required to have insurance. The law about young adults staying on their parents insurance until the age of 26 I feel could have been implemented without the rest of the PPACA. There still would have been a significant decline in uninsured adults.
It’s clear premiums have increased, I suppose I just don’t understand why that is caused by the PPACA. I don’t pretend to know much about how that works. But wasn’t the PPACA supposed to make insurance affordable?
Another chart I’m not sure I can believe is that there are no adverse employment effects. I, personally, was affected by this. Thankfully, only for a short period of time. But for about six months I was cut from 40 hours down to about 24, just to make sure I didn’t ever go over my hour limit so that they didn’t have to offer me insurance. Thankfully that changed, but I’m sure that’s not the case for everyone. I’m sure there were some people that started being offered benefits and I’m sure there many that got hours cut or had to find second jobs because of this.
My overall opinion: I’m not sure I like Obamacare. The government is punishing those who can’t afford insurance by charging a huge yearly fine if they go uninsured for a certain period of time. If they can’t afford insurance, then clearly they can’t afford the fine either! This is the part that really just doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe I’m going about this all wrong, I don’t pretend to know much about it. Just wanted to share my thoughts on what I do know.