Lawmakers Celebrate 13 Years Of ‘Obamacare’; Republicans Still Pushing Back

On the same day the Biden administration celebrated 13 years of expanded healthcare coverage under President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, Republican leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing titled: “Why Health Care is Unaffordable: The Fallout of Democrats’ Inflation on Patients and Small Businesses.”

The ACA, better known as Obamacare, has long been the target of Republican lawmakers who said it has pushed costs higher, taken away patient choice, and made it difficult for small businesses to offer health benefits to their workers. 

But popular features of the law, such as preventing insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, have helped it withstand dozens of attempted repeals and even Supreme Court challenges.

“I think most people agree it is the most consequential piece of healthcare legislation since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965,” President Biden said at an event at the White House Thursday.

And, in a Zoom interview Thursday afternoon, Deputy Assistant to the President for Health and Veterans Affairs Christen Linke Young said, "the Affordable Care Act remains stronger than ever across the country."

Young said Oklahomans have benefited significantly from the law.

Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that almost 20 percent of Oklahomans lacked health insurance in 2010, just before passage of the ACA. 

By 2021, the number was down to 14 percent.

That same year Oklahoma voters did what Oklahoma politicians wouldn't and used a ballot initiative to expand Medicaid, as allowed under the ACA, and the uninsured rate dropped to just under ten percent.

"There are more than 700,000 people in Oklahoma with pre-existing conditions, who can sleep easier at night, knowing that they can’t be discriminated against on the basis of their health, no matter where they get their health insurance," Young added. "This is a robust law that’s delivering meaningful benefits to people all across the state and all across our country."

But Republicans insist the consequences of Obamacare have mostly been negative. Small business owners who testified at the Ways and Means hearing said it’s harmed the healthcare landscape for them and their employees.

“13 years later, it’s no better for the small businessman in America,” Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK1), a member of the committee and successful businessman himself, said. “It's all been about getting people on government healthcare, so that we can have socialized medicine in America.”

Rep. Hern said Thursday's hearing demonstrated Obamacare has only made healthcare more expensive and taken us closer to a system of socialized medicine. He said it's critical to remove the burden Obamacare has put on small businesses.

"So that they can provide healthcare through their businesses, as opposed to sending their employees to the exchange for healthcare that the government's providing."

Republicans have yet to release their FY 2024 budget proposal, but the White House has launched a preemptive strike, saying that, based on the cuts some Freedom Caucus members have called for, the impact to healthcare would be a “five–alarm fire for Americans."