Keeping the Alexander-Murray health care bill in context

As the debate unfolds about the bipartisan bill by Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray to repair the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, the public could be just as confused as they have been about the ACA’s marketplaces. That’s why it’s important to debate it in the right context: It’s aimed at an urgent problem affecting a relatively small sliver of the health insurance system, not all of the ACA and not the entire health system.

The bottom line: It’s a limited measure that will never give conservatives or liberals everything they want.

Who will be affected if insurance companies…

Only those who buy

their own insurance

Only those with

employer plans

Everyone with

health insurance

…choose not to

sell ACA plans

10%

22%

59%

…raise ACA

premiums

23%

12%

59%

Don’t know/

no answer

Data: Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll conducted Oct. 5-10, 2017; Chart: Chris Canipe / Axios

Reality check: Many people will think it affects their insurance when, in actuality, it will have no impact on the vast majority of Americans who get their coverage outside of the relatively small ACA marketplaces.

The chart based on
our new Kaiser Tracking Poll shows the confusion. Just 23% of the American people know that rising premiums in the ACA marketplaces affect only people who buy their own insurance. More than seven out of 10 wrongly believe rising premiums in the marketplaces affect everyone or people who get coverage through their employer.

The public will be susceptible to spin and misrepresentation of the limited goals of Alexander-Murray: a bipartisan effort to stabilize the marketplaces by funding the cost-sharing reduction subsidies, providing more resources for open enrollment outreach, and expediting state waivers.

President Trump has added to the confusion. He recently pronounced the ACA “dead”, adding, “there is no such thing as Obamacare anymore.” Possibly that’s because he wishes it was dead. More likely, he was referring to the problems in the ACA marketplaces, which he has exaggerated.

Like thinking your whole house is falling down when just a part of the foundation needs shoring up, both he and the American people have an inaccurate picture of where the marketplaces fit in the ACA and where the ACA fits in the health system.

A few facts:

• There are just 10 million people enrolled in the ACA marketplaces.
• The law’s larger Medicaid expansion and consumer protections are popular and working well.
• The far larger Medicare and Medicaid programs and employer based health system combined cover more than 250 million people, and are largely unaffected by developments in the ACA marketplaces.
• Premiums for the 155 million people who get coverage through their employers rose a very modest 3% in 2017.

Some conservatives in Congress will hold out for repeal, and they’ll resist any legislation that they view as propping up Obamacare. But for everyone else, it’s important to understand the problem and get the facts.