Many eyes were on Congress last Thursday as legislators grilled the CEOs of the largest health coverage payors in the country. And “grilling” was the right word — the exchanges were heated, and at times became downright brutal, a tone reflected in media coverage that didn’t pull any punches.
The message was clear: people are fed up with the way health coverage works in this country. At best, the system feels expensive, opaque, and unresponsive. At its worst? The opinions are unrepeatable in polite company — and often for good, justifiable reasons.
There are any number of ways to unpack the Congressional testimony — and any number of pundits out there unpacking it — but one thing that’s important to understand is that, when evaluated by the issues it was attempting to address, the Affordable Care Act has been successful.
Yes, I mean that seriously: premium increases were curtailed; the number of uninsured dropped dramatically; and numerous problematic practices were abolished. The problem isn’t the ACA itself; the problem is that it was never the all-purpose “fix” it was touted to be.