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~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The Fifth Anniversary


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In Its Five Years, The Affordable Care Act Has Transformed Health Care

While conservatives have looked to increasingly desperate ways to tear down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), whether it is the latest Republican budget or the King v. Burwell lawsuit, this Monday marks a remarkable progressive achievement. By making health insurance more affordable and available, tens of millions of Americans now benefit from quality, affordable care, urban or rural, conservative or liberal. March 23rd is the 5-year anniversary of the ACA. This landmark law has been one of the biggest policy achievements since the 1960s, and after five years it is stronger than ever.

To celebrate the law, we’ve put together the top five facts to show how the law is benefiting Americans:

1. 16.4 million: The Affordable Care Act was the fastest expansion of health insurance since 1965. Since the law went into effect, 16.4 million people who did not previously have health insurance are now covered.

2. 129 million: Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 129 million people no longer have to worry about an insurer denying or dropping their coverage, significantly raising their premiums, or limiting their benefits because of a pre-existing condition.

3. 20 percent: The Affordable Care Act is now projected to be 20 percent cheaper than expected over the next 10 years, due in large part to slower growth in premium costs than expected – contrary to conservative claims that the ACA was filled with runaway costs and would cause premiums to skyrocket.

4. 71 percent: 71 percent of Americans who purchased health insurance from the state and federal exchanges rated their plans as either “excellent” or “good.”

5. 87 percent: 87 percent of Americans who bought insurance from the federal exchange qualified for tax credits to help make their premiums more affordable.

And while Republicans have repeatedly attacked the law as a “job killer,” the evidence proves them wrong. As the chart below demonstrate, the passage of the Affordable Care Act marks the point when the private sector began to create jobs again after the depths of the Great Recession:

BOTTOM LINE: Despite obsessive conservative attempts to repeal the law and take away health insurance form Americans, the Affordable Care Act is doing better than ever. This landmark achievement for the progressive movement, and for the country at-large, is a giant leap towards ensuring that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A Failing Grade


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How The Republican Budget Hurts Students And Workers

We’ve written before about how the House Republican budget proposals present a fundamentally different vision for the country, a vision that hurts the economy and undermines hard-working Americans. When it comes to investing in the future of America – our children – their priorities are equally destructive.

The Republican budget would gut programs for pre-kindergarten education, low-income students, Special Education programs, and college students. Their budget even goes after workers looking to learn new skills to better compete in the 21st century economy. While the President has offered a budget that would keep our country competitive by investing in our workers and our future workers, here’s what Republican budget would do to students of all different kinds:

And while this is at the federal level, conservative leaders at the state level have shown themselves to agree with these priorities. In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker’s budget is wreaking havoc on institutions of learning. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire is close to laying off nearly a quarter of their employees. Rural Wisconsin schools have had to cut counselors and librarians in part because of a lack of funding.

That’s not all. In North Carolina, Governor Pat McCrory’s budget would force the University of North Carolina system to raise tuition, cut professors and increase class sizes. In Kansas, Governor Sam Brownback proposed slashing school budgets to make up for his massive tax cuts largely that benefited the rich and didn’t help the economy. Rather than making important investments, Republican governors are gutting education funding just like they are cutting taxes and hoping that things will magically improve. That’s not how the economy works, and it’s not how education works either.

BOTTOM LINE: Conservatives like to say that America’s workers are the best in the world. But when it comes to supporting our workers and our future by investing in education, whether it is in Congress or in the states, their proposals and policies do the exact opposite: jeopardize our economy both today and in the future.