In December 2013, during the initial rollout of healthcare.gov, people on both sides of the aisle criticized the rollout of Obamacare and said that the law was doomed for failure before it even got off of the ground. Roughly two years later, the law is an overwhelming success, but nobody’s talking about it anymore.
On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office released their latest report on the Affordable Care Act. The report stated that “the number of uninsured Americans has dropped by about 12 million,” and continued to say that “only about 8 percent of Americans under age 65 will lack insurance by the time Obama leaves office.”
Not only is the number of uninsured people falling rapidly, but it’s also approaching historical lows according to a Time article published last December. On top of the tremendous improvements in the rate of uninsured Americans, the annual growth in health care costs is slowing. According to a 2014 NBC News article, “U.S. healthcare spending grew at the lowest rate ever recorded last year, in defiance of predictions that it would surge this year with Obamacare.” The critics of Obamacare claimed that health care prices would skyrocket following its implementation, but that just hasn’t happened.
In addition to accomplishing much of what the law set out to do, it has stood up to fierce challenges from members of Congress. According to an article published by the Washington Post, from January 2011 to March 2014, the Republican-controlled House voted a whopping 54 times to repeal the bill in one way or another.
Even with the tremendous success of the law, after the shaky rollout, Democrats have shied away from the bill. In the 2014-midterm elections, Democratic candidates avoided any mention of the bill and their potential connection to it. A CNN article published during the rollout in the early midst of election season commented, “Talking to Democratic strategists, you won't hear any of them telling candidates to run on Obamacare no matter how good the numbers look, and no matter if it starts to appear that the law is working.”
As most people know, the Democrats were crushed across the country, but it’s interesting to think what could have happened had they chosen to run alongside one of the most successful policies of the past six years. It shouldn’t come as a tremendous surprise that when you run from a bill that’s more successful than your own campaign, you’re going to lose the election.
Obviously Republicans have no intention of reminding people that the bill they’re still firmly opposed to is working, but it’s time for Democrats across the country to step up and win the messaging battle that they’ve been lagging in every step of the way.
Even before the 2016 election cycle gets started, Democrats have an opportunity to make sure that people across the country know that they’ve accomplished something tremendous.
Over the past several decades, many Presidents and Congresses have promised and failed to deliver on health care reform, but this group did it and they deserve the credit for their accomplishment. The next election cycle will be a brutal one, but it’s important that Democrats are getting the word about their successes out instead of letting Republicans dominate the headlines and the stories that people are talking about.
Reach the columnist at zjosephs@asu.edu or follow @zachjosephson on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
Want to join the conversation? Send an email to opiniondesk.statepress@gmail.com. Keep letters under 300 words and be sure to include your university affiliation. Anonymity will not be granted.
LikeThe State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
