ObamaCare’s Health At The Start Of Year Three

The national health care system – ObamaCare — heads into Year Three and it’s open enrollment season. We look at the problems and the progress.

The Affordable Care Act – ObamaCare if you prefer – is headed into its active year three. Sign-up for the next year started Sunday. Two days after Republicans in the House voted for the 61^st time to take it apart. On the campaign trail, GOP contenders are still talking about the repeal of ObamaCare. In communities across the country, millions of people are using it. In this hour we want to hear what that is like. The sign-up now. The service. The cost. And we’ll look at problems that remain, and how to fix them. This hour On Point, getting health insurance through Obamacare.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Julie Rovner, senior correspondent for Kaiser Health News. Former NPR News health policy correspondent. Author of "Health Care Policy and Politics, A to Z." (@jrovner)

Mark Van Arnam, training director for Enroll America - North Carolina. (@mva_ofa2012)

Jeff Goldsmith, president of Health Futures, Inc. Associate professor of public health sciences at the University of Virginia.

Thomas Miller, health care expert and fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Former senior health economist for Congress' Joint Economic Committee. Co-author of "Why ObamaCare is Wrong for America."

Kaiser Health News: Nearly 9 Million People Gained Insurance In Health Marketplace’s First Year — "The percentage of Americans without health insurance dropped by nearly three percentage points between 2013 and 2014, according the U.S. Census Bureau, from 13.3 to 10.4 percent. Put another way, 8.8 million more people were insured in 2014 than the year before. The annual study from Census is considered the definitive measure of health insurance, although a change in the way health insurance questions are asked make this year’s report comparable to 2013 but not earlier years."

The Hill: GOP raises alarm on higher ObamaCare Medicaid costs — "Two top Republicans are raising concerns about the cost of new Medicaid enrollees who signed up under ObamaCare’s expansion of the program. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), in a letter to the administration, point to recent estimates showing new enrollees under ObamaCare cost more per person than standard enrollees."

Washington Post: Third year of ACA sign-up starts, on time but with muted fanfare — "Enrollment in HealthCare.gov and state insurance marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act opened smoothly and on time Sunday, although accompanied by further turbulence within a group of innovative health plans that the law pioneered."