Former President Obama stepped into the Obamacare repeal fight Thursday, rejecting claims that his health law is in a “death spiral” and saying it can thrive — as long as President Trump properly administers it.
“The reality is clear: America is stronger because of the Affordable Care Act,” Mr. Obama said in a statement come just hours before the House is expected to take a vote to repeal the massive health law.
The former president said his law has saved nearly 100,000 lives by insisting on mammograms and vaccines as basic care, and improving hospital care.
He attempted to shoot down a number of criticisms of his law, saying that while millions do still lack insurance, denting his claims of universal coverage, millions more do have insurance thanks to Obamacare.
He also said that while health prices are rising — contrary to his goal of bending the cost curve — they’re going up at a slower rate than previous decades. Analysts say that was chiefly due to a pause in the hike of prescription drug costs, and say the future likely will see bigger increases, even under Obamacare.
Most critically, though, Mr. Obama said his law is not in the dreaded “death spiral” that Republicans and some health executives have said. Under the death spiral, young healthy customers are chased from the marketplace by rising costs, leaving an older, sicker population that then requires even higher premiums and deductibles, spiking prices even higher — and chasing more people from the market.
“While it’s true that some premiums have risen, the vast majority of marketplace enrollees have experienced no average premium hike at all,” he said.
That’s because the more their plans cost, the more taxpayers shell out to assist in paying the premiums, the Congressional Budget Office said in a new analysis this month.
Mr. Obama said Obamacare will remain stable “so long as the law is properly administered” — a challenge at his successor, President Trump.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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