Interesting Study on ACA Participation

The Commonwealth Fund released a study a few months back that just came across our desk this morning. It deals with whether or not the ACA had an effect on declining uninsured rates.
I believe in the end, yes, the ACA lowered the uninsured rate but it wasn't because of anything purchased. What the ACA did was pass off the costs from the consumer to the government making health insurance "affordable". How did they do that, you ask? Well, the ACA made provisions for subsidies to be paid out for lower income Americans which took a normal $400-600 premium and through subsidies made it under $100. The American taxpayer ate the rest. For the truly low income individuals, the expansion of Medicaid created a $0 premium plan with (in most cases) $0 copays, coinsurances and deductibles.
So of course people are going to sign up for something free. In that case, yes, the ACA did indeed lower the uninsured rate.
The flip side of that coin was the ACA drove people into the marketplace who were happy with their group plans by rewriting the rules on who can qualify for group coverage. One of the biggest crimes of the ACA was the destruction of the two life group. The vast majority of small group insurance was written on businesses with under seven lives and for the most part were two life "mom and pop" groups. When the ACA said no greater than 51% of a single family could make up a group health plan roster, that essentially killed small group health insurance and drove people to the marketplace. The participation as you can see is not because of the quality of the plans or the desire to go to the marketplace, it was because of legislation that destroyed the plans they liked and could no longer keep.
The bottom line is you can not pass off costs to government be it state or federal and then crow about the "success" of your plan when the fact is without the government handouts, no one would have gone to the marketplace. We are burdening our children with a debt tomorrow to fuel our socialist desires today.
Take a look at the study and see first hand how they made this horrible piece of legislation seem all sweetness and light.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2016/dec/aca-declining-uninsured-rate