Obamacare at 13: Biden and a KHN Reporter Remember

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Obamacare at 13: Biden and a KHN Reporter Remember


I used to be again within the crowded East Room of the White House on Thursday, as I used to be 13 years in the past, this time standing below a portrait of first first girl Martha Washington, when President Joe Biden entered for a lunchtime occasion centered on the Affordable Care Act.

The room seemed a lot the identical because it did on March 23, 2010, after I had rushed over to the White House to witness President Barack Obama signing his historic well being invoice into legislation. I knew from that second — standing below a portrait of President Teddy Roosevelt, who was the first chief government to espouse a necessity for nationwide medical health insurance — that my life as a well being journalist would by no means be the identical.

Yet, when Biden scheduled an occasion to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the well being legislation, I used to be not sure of the necessity to preserve commemorating its birthday.

After all, on the 13th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson signing Medicare and Medicaid into legislation — July 30, 1978 — the Democratic president within the White House didn’t maintain an occasion to commemorate the date when tens of thousands and thousands of older Americans and lower-income folks gained protection. Then-President Jimmy Carter spent that Sunday at Camp David.

But with the ACA in 2010, after a century of debate, the U.S. well being system was getting hit with a thunderbolt that will allow thousands and thousands of individuals to achieve medical protection. The legislation made many modifications affecting hospitals, medical doctors, insurers, drugmakers, and employers in an effort to stay as much as its lofty title by decreasing prices.

Those sweeping provisions, the years spent implementing them, and efforts by Republicans and the courts to repeal or change the legislation have stored the Affordable Care Act within the information for even longer than I had anticipated. After 13 years, the job continues to be not completed. North Carolina on Thursday grew to become the 40th state to broaden Medicaid below the ACA.

Biden used the well being legislation anniversary to tout the legislation’s affect. He reminded his viewers that Republicans nonetheless wish to strip lots of its advantages. He additionally burdened that the nation has unfinished enterprise to decrease drug prices for a lot of and broaden well being protection to individuals who nonetheless don’t have it. Indeed, greater than 2 million individuals are with out protection within the 10 states — extremely populous Florida and Texas amongst them — which have but to broaden Medicaid.

Many former Obama staffers who helped get the legislation handed have been there — together with some who work within the Biden White House. (Obama was not there.) So, too, have been a number of Democratic lawmakers who helped cross the legislation, together with former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and former California congressman and now Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

“Look, 13 years ago today, we gathered in this room as President Obama signed into law the Affordable Health Care Act,” Biden started along with his remarks. “Hard to believe 13 days ag- — 13 years ago. It seems like 13 days ago.”

“And I remember the three words I used at the time,” he stated as many within the viewers recalled the swear phrase he was caught whispering to Obama through a stay microphone. “I thought it was. I thought it was a big deal. And I stand by the fact it was a big deal.”

Biden stated that the well being legislation has been known as by many names, however that essentially the most applicable is Obamacare.

The legislation has turn into ingrained into the material of the nation, Biden stated. Over 40 million Americans are coated by Medicaid or on-line insurance coverage market plans, the best on file, the Biden administration stated Thursday. That’s a 36% improve from 2021.

But a thirteenth anniversary celebration? Jessica Altman, who helped implement Obamacare within the Obama administration and is now CEO of Covered California, one of many Obamacare exchanges, stated it was necessary to take time to remind folks what the American well being system used to appear to be in addition to the numerous challenges remaining to enhance it. (Altman is the daughter of KFF’s president and CEO. KHN is an editorially unbiased program of KFF.)

“We still have places to go, and we still have work to do and the people in that room are excited to keep doing it,” Altman stated.

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