The Affordable Care Act (ACA) begins going into effect October 1st. As someone who has a significant understanding of the issues by virtue of my work in the healthcare industry, as well as some fairly intense personal interest over the last few years, I just wanted share a couple of tidbits for your consideration.
When you hear that premiums are going to quadruple (looking at you Forbes Magazine), relax. Those disingenuous comparisons are not apples-to-apples, and the authors know it. They are deceiving you. For comparable coverage, some premiums will be a little lower, and some will be a little higher, but there will be no massive increases for comparable benefit packages. Not happening.
When you hear that employers are cutting hours so as to push people onto the exchanges, consider that while the ACA may have given employers an incentive to do so, it is ultimately the employer who has chosen to cut employee benefits and hours, not the government. They could have done the same thing in the absence of the ACA, but now they have a convenient scapegoat. It’s a profit grab at the expense of loyal employees, plain and simple. Direct your anger appropriately.
When you hear that the ACA amounts to a government takeover, or socialized medicine, I can assure you that this is not even remotely the case. If it were, I would be out of a job. Quite to the contrary, business is booming in the private insurance market. There will be more choice in the future, not less.
Finally, when you hear that the majority of Americans oppose the ACA, consider that most of them, by their own admission, don’t really understand it. And many of the rest have been told the ACA is something that it is not.
The bottom line is that there’s a lot of misinformation out there, most of it propagated by right-leaning media outlets, think tanks, and politicians, which is odd since the crux of the new system was originally their id
To be clear, I am not saying that the ACA is going to be a massive success, or that every single person will come out ahead. However, I can assure you that the general outlook is not nearly as dire as some would have you believe.
Keep calm, and carry on.