Shaheen: Costs Have Gone Up Under ACA, But It’s Designed to Cover More People and Congress Hasn’t Spent Enough to Keep Costs Down

On Thursday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) responded to a question on whether subsidies have to keep being increased for the Affordable Care Act because it didn’t lower costs by saying that costs have gone up under the ACA, “But the important thing about Obamacare and the marketplace is that we have covered more people,” “and that’s what the marketplace, the Obamacare marketplace, is designed to do. Now, one of the challenges is that Congress has continued to take away the funding that was designed to help lower those costs over time, so that we haven’t been able to do the work that we need to on the delivery system reform to make the system work better.”

Co-host Steve Inskeep asked, “First, you point out that the rest of us pay for the health care of people who don’t have insurance, who are unable to pay for insurance. You also mentioned the high cost of health care. Do you accept the Republican argument here that Obamacare fundamentally did not bend the curve, as people once said, it has not brought down healthcare expenses overall, and that’s why you keep having to raise the subsidies?”

Shaheen responded, “We have seen healthcare costs continue to go up. But the important thing about Obamacare and the marketplace is that we have covered more people, double the number of people, 24 million people who are covered under the marketplace. And in New Hampshire, which I represent, for the last four years in a row, we have seen the number of uninsured go down and the cost of premiums go down as well. So, I think what we need to do is to look at how we provide health care for all of the people who need it, and that’s what the marketplace, the Obamacare marketplace, is designed to do. Now, one of the challenges is that Congress has continued to take away the funding that was designed to help lower those costs over time, so that we haven’t been able to do the work that we need to on the delivery system reform to make the system work better.”

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