Zeke Emanuel: ObamaCare Improved Health Care for Americans on All Counts

‘We do need more insurance companies in’

EXCERPT:

EMANUEL: "Any one of the three major criteria how you would evaluate the ACA. Did it improve coverage? Yes, 22 million people got insurance through the ACA, so that's a plus. Our uninsurance rate now hovers around 10 percent and if all the states have expanded Medicaid it would be even lower. And costs. Yes costs have gone up but they have gone up much more slowly than they did under president Bush and they moderated. For example, under President Bush insurance premiums for employers went up 80 percent while under President Obama, they went up 35 percent. A substantial reduction in the growth of health care costs. So cost control has actually been significantly improved. And then in terms of quality we have seen hospital readmission rates within 30 days of discharge going down, we've seen improvements in -- in infections in hospitals, in no tromboembolia, no fall, so whether it's access cost recovering the Affordable Care Act has been an improvement. That doesn't mean it's been home run on every one of them but a significant improvement."
 

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